March 2000
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Co-editors: |
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Gael Stahl (Ernest-1960 "Zeke") |
Jack Brennan (Ternan-1960) |
Next Diaspora Reunion June 10, 2000 at Mayslake
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Note from Gael, hardcopy editor: Bill McGee said in DD29: "Gael, you write and publish the digest and you are an enigma in it. We do want to hear [more] of you." I find that amusing. I see the danger of your editors being too much in it. I always have too much material. Naturally, I start by excising my own letters because I write 30-50 per month to fringe friars and other DD readers. You'll notice that I've left more of my letters ride in DD30, if only to persuade Bill and others who feel as he does, that you wouldn't want this to be an habitual act. The quality of DD is directly proportional to the diversity of writers as opposed to the quantity of the same old writers writing the same old stuff. This issue see some wonderfully fresh voices - folks who have never contributed their stories and blossoms (fioretti) to DD before. Enjoy. And keep them coming. Note from Jack Brennan, electronic editor: I enjoy writing for the DD, but I want to leave room for other diasporants. No one has yet called me an enigma, in fact, GK said I was voluble. Amen to "keep them coming." Note from Jack Hardesty, web-izer: I have made a few minor "adjustments" to this on-line version. Due to the wordiness of the answers, I have inserted a short line between the individual notes. Rather than reproduce the Flinn Commentary (since it is already available on-line) I have just inserted a link to that page. 6 Sept 99: With apologies to Steve Gengenbacher of San Antonio for not getting this in DD29: I don't get to my e-mail as often as I would like. That's why, if you don't mind, please send DD by (surface) mail. I'm more apt to pay attention when I get it. I was in the class that graduated from St. Joe's in 1970, and Quincy College in 1975. The only friar ordained in that bunch was Ted Haag, and I'm not sure where he is right now. He had been here in Texas for a bit. Thanks for the reply. My best to you and your wife. 5 Nov 1999 Joan Burds of Ste. Genevieve MO: writes You've never heard from me since I've been on the DD list. My summer has been incredibly busy and I am just now making it more thoroughly through DD28. That's where I read your BOXED request for a response from those who have never contacted you. I didn't deliberately ignore my long-time intention to write. I even started a letter a year ago and never finished it because my life got too crazy. I don't know too many of the people involved in DD, though reading their letters is usually interesting. I recognize names of many whom I've never met, because they were friends of some of the friars I knew at Corpus Christi. I do enjoy the theological and issues exchanges that seem to be a bone of contention. I'd say go for it because they are part our lives. Since I've been so remiss, and since most of those who get DD don't know me, I think you should leave me off your mailing list until you get a check from me. With all the good intentions in the world and all the forgetfulness and happenings that screw them up may you hear from me in the not too distant future. 6 Nov. Gael replied: Joan, you silly. You have a life-subscription. By contribution I mean a letter to DD, not money. We need to hear from you. I would love to know more about your crazy life, even if it's off the record and not for DD. The last letter I got from you was years ago -- very prophetic, very Micah, Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah. You're too late to contribute to DD29. I'm folding, sealing envelopes, and labeling them this morning. I'm about half way there and needed a rest, so came to check my mail. Thanks for writing. Would love to hear more. Remember Angel Bizek from Corpus Christi? She wrote for DD29. Not too many details. Love you - always. 6 Nov 1999: Arnie Wieser: Hi, we have had computer troubles... I'll have to get back to better communications with the Diaspora family. Soon, I hope. 6 Nov 1999: via Jack Bartz: Mayslake update: [The Franciscans sold the Mayslake property for $17.5 million in 1992 to the Forest Preserve District (FPD) of Du Page County. The estate is 90 acres and includes the lakes we used to swim. The estate includes the Peabody Mansion (the retreat house) and St. Pascal's Friary. [Apparently, the FPD and the preserve district gave control of the property to a volunteer group, the Mayslake Landmark Conservancy (MLC). Over time, the FPD became unhappy with the way the MLC was running things and wanted to take control from them. The conflict that ensued was resolved in September, 1999. The MLC will keep control and has plans to create about 80 senior citizen apartments in the two buildings. However, there is the matter of bringing the buildings up to code. This will cost about $3 million to accomplish. There are tax free bonds being proposed to raise the money, as well as a search for grant money. -- I hope there is a statute of limitations on our swimming in the lakes and Fr. Andy (Gildard) Buvala and Fr. Gentil Katoski (GK) will not impose a retro-active penance on us for those infractions! Most of the time, truth be known, we simply circumambulated those lakes when the "Loop" got boring. -- JB.] 6 Nov 1999: Jack Bartz: The following deaths occurred this past week: Brother Francis Stein (95 yrs. old) and Father Bill Barnickel (Jan. 7, 1926-Sep. 21, 1999: 73). I went to Bill's wake service at Mayslake Village last evening (Friday). The funeral was this morning. May they rest in peace! 8 Nov 99 Alan (Gordon-1958) and Dr. Bernadine Hoffman of Hot Springs AR: As of May 1, 2000, they move from Arkansas to: 6229 Creek Breeze Charlotte, NC 28269. Their newsletter is mostly good news except for Alan's fall of 15 feet in August from a ladder while cutting tree limbs. Weeks after an emergency room misdiagnosis, he was found to have a fractured tibia plateau leading to two compression fractures in his spine. An orthopedist fixed the leg with a plate and seven large screws. The back is inoperable but should slowly improve. After he retires in April they are moving to North Carolina where they'll be close to relatives. They got to Europe during the summer. Karen and Kevin moved last year. Karen to Burlington VT to teach philosophy and Kevin to the other end of Hot Springs where he works as a probation officer with juvenile court. 9 Nov 99 Steve Yonick of Chicago: Thanks so much for DD29. Thanks to Joe Smith for sending my info to get me back on the list. [Your Dds returned to us and disconcerted us. GBS] The DD is my only "worm-hole" contact with anyone. Meanwhile, I have not suffered from loneliness. My only friend and family, Ernesto Garcia, and I celebrated our 13th anniversary Nov. 1. We have survived life's cauldrons - to continue to do so to the end. Nov. 1 was also my 5th anniversary as library page for the Chicago Public Library. Unless the Spirit has another surprise in the sleeve, I foresee hand labor with books until my transitus - in my history, a 5-year period at something is a time factor - and five years are up. Is something else coming to challenge me, to change me ever more? I hadn't touched a keyboard for about five years! I'm back to Bach, Chopin, etc., with more vigor and greater results than at age 25. I sternly grade myself. My daily living is simple, uncluttered, with much ado about nothing. I cherish and nourish many values from my past on all levels. But I enjoy each precious moment of the present, to look forward to the Spirit's surprises. On Oct. 13th, my Bach recital was a huge success - my audience was a small group of urban grade schoolers. Enclosed is a copy of a write-up I received in the mail from a person I know nothing about (another surprise). For me, the concert was a test of myself, and of the program itself. It may have been the shortest career in music history. Perhaps the beginning. I enjoy DD. Remember so many wonderful people. Thanks so much. I contribute when I can. [Steve's admirer headlined his words: Phantom Troubadour Excites School Children with Bach.] The text: He is not a commercial keyboard artist. He holds no professional position. No one owns him. He returns out of nowhere to continue as a contemporary troubadour. On Oct. 13, 1999, by chance, I stopped into the local Edgewater Branch Library. I heard Bach on digital keyboard with space-age sounds and percussion. I was amazed at the precision, virtuosity, and ecstatic subtleties. The school children were enthralled, excited, and truly participative. Their imaginary trip throughout the solar system with Bach was evocative and totally enthusiastic. When did school children ever dance to Bach or cluster around a virtuoso interpreter of the baroque master? J.S. would have been utterly stunned and would have danced himself. I found a copy of the program on a back table. The name of this phantom troubadour is Stephen S. Yonick. Years ago I attended his numerous recitals in the Loop - I remember all of them very well. I was always transported to a different dimension. I was swept into enchanting, seductive sound. Those children had a most unique and rare experience; they shall never forget it, nor shall I. - Malakai Peters, critic/musicologist [You know, had it not been for the name (nom de plume?) I'd have said this sounds like the popular, recently departed OFM/Diaspora critic/musicologist J. Smith. I'd have loved to have heard the concert. - gbs] 9 Nov 99 Rod Farrell of Chicago: Dear Gael, F. Joseph Smith died recently of a fuckin' heart seizure: too much love for Tony Lutz, despite ideological differences. But word has it Smith will reappear in 20 years to follow up on OFM Plan(s) to dialogue with "fringe friars." Latest bulletin: Smith will be sighted (like Elvis or J.C.?) in 2000, after a big New Year's bash. I believe Smith's point, clearly made for any normal person, was that persons were not "attacked" at all in whatever ideological brawl, but that in fact Tony Lutz was deeply regarded as an upstanding citizen. (At least, you know where he courageously stands. No mamby pamby there. Prost! Incidentally, Smith is going on 34 years of marriage even as he stands up for gays' (and So. American) civil rights. Sorry pious ears were offended by Tony's and Joe's little interchange. I'll quaff brewskies with Tony any day, as we agree to disagree, and as we reconfirm a profound friendship that began when we were in high school. Comprende? (Duh!) - DD is a great vehicle for actual verbal encounter across a range of emotions and struggles. What we lack is actual contact (over Leinenkugel - Wisconsin brew). Maybe the June 10, 2000, bash will bridge that over, at least in part. Meantime, Smith told me in a vision (after quaffing) that he absolutely loves everybody - except Hitler and Stalin - no matter your views. Go at us, Tony. We love it. My wife and I fought only when - before marriage - we were separated. Together, we were the picture of bliss and peaceful blessings. Straight poop from heaven, -- Rod Farrell (medium for the blessedly deceased and now-at-peace Smith) 9 Nov 99 Celestial footnote from Rod Farrell: In a vision/dream Joe Smith told me to tell the DD guys not to read the daily papers, even the conservative Chicago Tribune, because there are many upsetting letters and "op-eds" from the real world. Also, one of the guys says his senior kid was fired for "expletive deleted." In Smith's tenure as chief steward for AFSCME/City Colleges he got just such a guy reinstated. The punishment hardly fit the crime. So much for the "real world." Maybe Smith's work with drug rehab students also got him into realistic expletives ("Know what I'm sayin', man?"). Anyway, real life is a struggle, sparks fly. The immaculate fantasy world can't bear such reality, I guess. (What a perverse conception.) And, he'd like to see the "delightful literary" Holocaust piece. Sounds pretty obscene, given the realities of murder and mayhem. (This was Smith's last communication as he vanished behind a convenient cloud.) - Rod Farrell (medium) 9 Nov 1999 Jack Brennan of Spokane: Dearest Zeke, How the hell are you? We get so tied up in the details of the DD that I forget our real presence on either end of the Net. I got your hard copy of dd29 today and, believe it or not, I read every word of it. (Some form of repetition compulsion?) It is a shame that you had to cut Mayer's et al letters and were so merciful to L & S. Good brother, be assured that the DD was a wondrous idea on your part. When the brethren say what it means to them, I know they really mean it. I am irritated sometimes by the fundamentalist (preachers) who arrogantly assume that we have never considered their notions and that we need to be enlightened. I have to say, that I go into some sort of trance when we are in the mode of getting out the DD. I think of all those guys and our life then. I look up their pictures and I usually remember something poignant about them. It was a good life and, frankly, I miss the simplicity of it all. We never worried about money, about teenagers and their whereabouts, nor about whether we were loved or not. We knew that people like Medard and Sylvano loved us and we didn't much care about the rest like [one in philosophy] who used to screw your head up with God knows what. Bottom line, we were all good guys, evolving as God made us. Not perfect. But sensitive and caring men. I guess that's a compliment to the powers that were; in spite and because of them, we grew into perfection. Not perfect as in being sinless, but perfect in following our being. If this all makes sense to you, you are still the friend I remember and cherish. I will be starting a half-time job working at a local hospital in about two weeks. It offers some security in that I won't have to be fighting managed care as much. I will have health and life insurance, paid vacation, and sick leave. A friend asked me the other day when I was going to retire. I told him honestly that I would retire a few days before my funeral. 10 Nov 99 Marcia Ditter of Effingham: Diaspora 29 came yesterday and I have read it twice already. It comes with a wealth of information that I truly enjoy. So please keep me on the mailing list. [You'd stay on forever even if you didn't write so often.] I'm enclosing and check and wish it could be more [it's more than enough.] I am way over my budget this year as we have two cancer patients in the family. Since one of them is terminal, I decided to purchase airplane tickets for everyone so we could all be together at Xmas for the first time since 1991, the Xmas before [former husband] Speed's death. I don't know how many of them are coming, but they all have my credit card number and hoping to be able to make it. Beth and Jeff come from California with their respective families. Nelli, Jeremy, and my one and only great grandchild come from Connecticut, but are moving back to California just after Thanksgiving. It'll be a party to enjoy, to say the least. I've done quite a lot of travel since I last saw you. My trip to Thailand was magnificent. Hope to go back soon. I'm still working on my book but not as diligently as I now have a male friend. He's good company, enjoys travel, and many other things that I enjoy doing. What's more, we've been friends since high school, so share a lot of the same friends as well as ideals. He's a good Catholic man, faithful to his church. I wish just once I'd meet a Presbyterian who is single who I could enjoy. They're all married, or taken by Catholic girls here in town. I went to California in March to see the van Gogh exhibit in the Los Angeles Museum. It was fabulous - spent time with Beth at Long Beach and Jeff at Salinas. Went to Branson twice, Las Vegas once, Charleston, S.C., to Kenny's reunion of Battleship Corregidor and hope to leave for Florida just after New Year's holiday season. Have a wonderful holiday season and stop by here when you are up this direction. Have three bedrooms so plenty of room for you. Lovingly. [Marcia, thanks for the card with a print of van Gogh's "Yellow House" in downtown Arles. Susan and I pilgrimaged there in 1979. The house was gone.] 10 Nov 1999: Rich Kirshling: (To Gael Stahl): Just got the Diaspora #29. Always love getting this newsletter and read it from beginning to end. Leave Ginny and I on your list. Although "our class" was some five or six years behind you, I knew all of you and still am very interested in what's happening to all. Just got back from Chicago Sunday where Ginny and I along with Joe and Karen Grush attended the wedding of John Huxel's oldest daughter Michelle. John married my cousin Jackie. We stayed with Joe and Karen in DeKalb at their house. Joe and Karen insisted we stay with them since over the past four years they visited Ginny and I many times at our house in Iowa City while their daughter Elizabeth was attending the University of Iowa. Many old friends at the wedding. Butch (Bob) Hoffman, Andy Knoll, Carol Stahura, Danny Masar, Jerry Hiller, Steve Lasco, Jim and Mary Zangs. Wedding was at the top of the Plaza 151 Michigan Ave. Wonderful evening. Thanks for holding it all together and keeping us all in touch Love... P.S. [separate email, same date] ...glad we have hooked up at last, more my fault then yours. Now you are in my address book, I don't know if that is bad or good. Dan is not my cousin, he is my brother, lives in Cleveland with his wife Doris and their son and daughter. My Mom and Dad live near them, all are doing fine. My youngest brother Paul lives in Jackson Hole Wyoming with his wife and their daughter who is attending the University of Utah. Ginny and I have two sons Brian who is an Eye Doctor doing his residency at the VA in Cleveland and will be getting married this December 11th to a wonderful girl he has been going with thru college and Med school. Our second son lives near my brother in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Joe was teaching at a small college in Iowa after graduating from Drake and decided to GO WEST YOUNG MAN and write and think and love and whatever. How I remember those wonderful days. Ginny, my partner for 30 years now, wow, teaches at a community college and is in charge of their Continuing Education Department for Health Care education. Duty calls, I have to run, more about me later, not that it is important, but it is. Peace and love. 11 Nov 1999: Dan Tanna of Reston VA: It just keeps getting better and better! Got #29 last night and want to fire off this quick note of appreciation. Ditto to all the guys' comments on what a difference DD has made for all of us over these years. Much more from the Tannie's for DD30. Just curious how Dick and Linda's (Mayer) software-engineer son picked "Ultima Online" as an employer. Surely, Dick has some rich insight into that one too! Of course the Ultima is still one of my favorites to plunk out on the keyboard and just whale away. (It has a dispersing effect on our two dogs - Wheezer and "Girly Dog." Damn, what a tradition we have. Did somebody say: "Prosit!" Jack, thought about you last week while watching The Today Show's Matt Lauer interview the author of The Best 10001 Movies Every Made? You don't remember, do you? Summer of '62? Our butts sticking out the window as we changed counter weights and I asked: What's the best movie was you ever saw?" An attempt on my part at the time to break down barriers and "try to get close." And you laughed, and laughed, and laughed! Remember? [As Fr. Optatus used to say, "Can a fellow forget his mother tongue?" I remember that we were painting windows at OLA. I laughed because I was so pleased at your attempt to connect with me. Remember that we had to be careful of 'particular friendships?!!!' JB.] Anyway, Jack, seen any good movies lately? [Yes, "The Priest." Check it out. JB.] A memorable moment I will take to the grave with me. Could have been emotionally scarred for life except you had a good, deep-down, robust laugh. Glad you are doing well. Sharon and I will see you in June! Gael, is sister Marilyn still living in DC area? Wanted to make the last get together at Chateau Brennan. Paul & Geri (Langan) and Nick Baxter journaled the details for us! Sharon and I had just moved to our fixer-up townhouse on Colts Neck Ct and I was suffering severely from tremors dos-mortgages. Balance returned after we rented the condo. And, Gael, we are still only seven minutes from Dulles International for anyone looking for accommodations. I've got the Weber ready to go! Well leave the light on! Gotta get to work! Light traffic day in DC with Feds enjoying Veteran's Day! I am managing (have been for the past seven) the Portals office complex in southwest; one building is national headquarters for Federal Communications Commission. Much more later. Thanks again, Guys!!! Pax et Bonum!!! 11 Nov 99 Gael's response to Jack: Yes, I often feel too that we don't connect the way we need to more often. Did you see "Tuesdays with Morrie" last Sunday? Jack Lemon looked more like Morrie than he looked like himself. It moved my sister Theresa to write me after months of being caught up in the "have to do" stuff. That moved me to watch it. A good reminder -- as is your letter. Yes, let's read the hard copy of the issues of DD again and again. These letters come from pure and wonderful hearts and I like to read them over and over. I wince at the argumentativeness because I'm not in that mode (at present), but they bespeak a troubled heart, distracted heart like I had often in the past -- or still do -- so I try to listen. It was a shame to cut the good words of dear brothers in DD29. In trying to be fair, I am sometimes too fair probably. Thanks for the thoughts about the digest and about our trances in putting it together. It's a good thing. And in reading your thoughts about our seminary days, I'm reminded that GK says in the last Senior Friars newsletter that Medard is 84 this year. He's about the youngest guy we know. He makes me look ahead a quarter century when we'll be in his age range, and I pray that we still have our marbles too. Your words make perfect sense. I share them. You have a way of putting things that speaks to the fringers' Oversoul (as Emerson called it) and chants in our hearts. "Standing on the bare ground - my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space - all mean egotism vanishes. I become transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God." (Emerson) Not hard to see why he was Whitman's first major and most famous admirer, is it? I suspect you feel that a dream has lapsed in abridging your private practice and going with a position. But it should bring you a lot less stress. I remember you saying that you paid your own family health insurance. The load on you - being a parent too - I can hardly imagine it. Whatever I do in life, I always admire the rest of you "grown ups" more. In that sense, the masters of clerics were good for me - probably for all of us - because even though I for one never took the final step into adulthood, I realized that I could probably get away being an eternal child or rebel or whatever inchoate being that I've been. I've never really understood myself and think they may have been frustrated trying to do the impossible. I thank the lord so many just accepted me and helped me accept being whatever I am. You surely always make me feel good. For most people I think I relate in one of two ways: try to live up to their expectations and hope they'll feel proud of me or alternately, rebel and demand to be me and all the nuttiness that sometimes includes. This is enough joint meditation. Love you, Miss you, Glad we're still here, alive, learning to dance, to love, to die so we'll learn to live (Morrie's philosophy in a nutshell). Great days, these. Hope your new part-time career provides the kind of benefits you need in this day and age. How did you survive without them? Especially with a family. Did Gayle have insurance coverage? Admiring your poverello spirit, Same old Zeke 11 Nov 1999: Paul Stubenbort to Jack Bartz: ...Out here on the East coast a group of us meet regularly. Tom Wichert, Basil Johnson, Jose Knoll, George McDevitt (now deceased) and once in a while Gerry Etzkorn. Good guys! You must have run into one or the other... 12 Nov 99 Jack Brennan: No, Gayle did not have coverage. I paid out of pocket for our insurance. Poverello, yes indeed! My car is broken down, though I still drive it. I have begged from a rich brother, who says he will send me some $ to buy a new car. Got a note from Kirshling. I still can't believe that Johnny Huxel died. Also, a neat note from Dan Tanna; one of my favorites in that class. He reminded me of an incident when he and I were painting the windows in Cleveland. I vaguely remember that and, of course, I will write to him. I started my new job today and I have some sad feelings about not being "successful" in my private practice. But I am rationalizing that it may be providential for me to have this job. They are giving me carte blanche to design a therapy program for cardiac patients and their families. It should prove very much fun and useful for me and the patients. 12 Nov 1999 Gregory Guerrero of Elgin IL (Br. Eustace, 1961): Greetings and peace and all that is good to all from Greg Guerrero. I always look forward to the Diaspora and often have thought that I should write. So here I am someone from the past. I would like to share a little history and a little reflection on what has happened in my life during the 30 plus years. The last few years in the Order were not the most happy years of my life. I felt betrayed, lost, and out of place. There were so many things I felt I wanted to do but could not do. It seemed that I was so alone and that no one really cared. Finally when I was sent to St. Peter's on Thanksgiving Day 1968, I felt that I was just banished to some distant land. The Father Guardian did not expect me, in fact he did not know who I was. While he tried to make me feel welcome, he also said he had nothing for me to do. So there I continued to flounder about for several months. When I was not cleaning toilets, I would spend hours in one of the chapels. Then I would go out and roam the streets of downtown Chicago, almost as if I were homeless. So I know how our homeless people feel. One day I went out on the street and walked toward the Board of Trade building. Near there I found MacCormac Jr. College. Not knowing what to expect, I went in and inquired about the curriculum. President Borchard interviewed me. He impressed me so much that I enrolled in a business course of study. When it came to the tuition part, I said that I had no money, but I would ask my superiors. The priest in charge of education for the province at the time informed me that there were no funds available for me to go to school. So I returned to the college and informed Mr. Borchard that no funds were available. He told me to call the next day and he would see what he could do. I was not back at St. Peter's one hour when the phone rang. I was asked to return to Mr. Borchard's office. He gave me some forms to complete, including a scholarship application from an Episcopal Congregation, a state grant and a government student loan. All were granted. So I embarked in my educational career. A year later Mr. Borchard helped me transfer to DePaul University, where I ran into an old high school teacher, Fr. Edward Riley, CM. He took me under his wing and got me a job at the university. Mr. Borchard continued to be my financial advisor. In 1971, I took a leave of absence from the Order. At DePaul I met a former priest, who became my psychological counselor. I applied for and got a dispensation from the Order. In 1972, I graduated with a BS in Commerce - pre-law and accounting. I often remember the challenge that a friar priest gave me when I left St. Peter's. "You will never make it out there. You'll be back knocking at the door asking for help," he said. Whether he knew it or not, those words later became the best words I would ever hear. They gave me the courage to do well. So, here I am comfortably retired from a U.S. Government career. During my years with the government, one of my life-long dreams was realized, to be a missionary in Bolivia, S. America. In 1975, my government agency sent me to Bolivia for six months. I was as happy as a lark. I retired in 1992. Now I live in a historic home built in 1910 in Elgin, Illinois. I am 66 years old. I keep busy as a realtor, serve on two boards of directors, belong to the United Way of Elgin Fund Distribution Committee, and serve on the parish Finance Council. I mentor eight grade school kids and several young adults here in my home. But my best job is caring for a 23-year-old man who is dying of cancer. I feel that I now do the work of St. Francis that I could not do in the Order. Perhaps, all those years in the Order were not so bad after all. Maybe the Lord was just trying to see if I was up to the job. So here I am - Franciscan in my own way. If anyone is ever out this way, give me a call at: 847-888-4683. Email is GGuerr7377 of AOL.com Peace and all that is good. Sorry for my rambling. Greg. (Enclosed is a little something [huge] to help out. Need to talk to Jack Bartz to see if I can help with the reunion. I'm having a bad diabetic day, hope you can read this note. - Greg) [Inspiring letter. - editors] 15 Nov 1999: Bob Karris I can be reached at rkarris of sbu.edu. Many thanks. [For the DD.] Happy Thanksgiving. 15 Nov 1999: Paul {Josaphat) Stubenbort: Yo Gael! That's the way they talk here in Philadelphia. Rocky sort of played on that. Thanks much for the quick response. I would have thought that more appropriate of a Jesuit.... we Franciscans are usually more casual. Who am I? Ordination class of 58. Diz Bonner, JJ Lakers, Clarahan, Duffy, et. al. I taught at Mayslake, 60 to 68. Married, 70. When I mentioned Fifi (Joe Smith) and Tony (Lutz) I guess I hit a raw nerve. Sorry about that. I didn't know all the extra work they were causing you. I guess I should have. I guess what I meant by the comment to let them go was that what we used to believe about divorce, birth control, infallibility, Eucharist, church, etc., etc. is now being played out in many forums. I was just interested in hearing what some of the Friars, active and diaspora felt about all this. But I'm easy. Hope to see you at Mayslake. I'll get in touch with Bartz. Ecce quam Bonum! P.S. I taught with Kurt Hartrich at Mayslake. You were probably in Philosophy when I was there. [Jack and I missed you by going to novitiate in June '59.] 15 Nov 1999: John Laker: Please send [DD] to: < linccil of apci.net> Thanks. 15 Nov 1999: Howard Classen: My E-Mail is < HC11 of earthlink.net >, that's hc "one-one". Thanks [for the DD] ...All is well. Our daughter, Sara, lives in NYC and will be getting married next year. Take Care. 16 Nov 99 Phillip Windolph of Burbank IL: I read some of the dd29 and have to admit I was chagrined by the admission of letters from Tony Lutz on very controversial topics while discouraging such letters from Joe Smith. Since you (and others) were quite clear that polemics were not desirable in the DD, it would seem fair that you would not include anything of a definitely controversial nature. [Read further. Both were discouraged from dominating the available space. Both were given more than a fair share of space in DD29 with the overflow going into the e-version.] Two such recent controversial topics are the SOA and homosexuality. It appears to me that the majority of Catholics (including the U.S. bishops) have been definitely against the SOA for years. As for homosexuality, I can see why Tony Lutz would be, with the Vatican, against such an orientation as "disorder," since they clearly do not know much biology. Anyone with knowledge of the latest truths knows that such a sexual orientation is a natural occurrence in all of creation and thus is simply another indication of the diversity of living things. Its expression therefore is as natural as a "southpaw" pitching with his left hand. I do not intend to write any more letters, following Joe Smith's lead [sic], since you prefer not to include philosophical discussion on theological topics. So I will close by attempting to clarify a comment I made that mystified Tony, namely: We should follow Christ's law of love rather than the love of the law as followed by Rome authorities. Christ gave us only onecommandment besides that of loving God. "Love one another as I have loved you." Are all the recent silencings, condemnations, excommunications, etc., (Bishop Hunthausen, Hans Kung, Nugent & Gramik, and many others), often without recourse, following the law of love or the love of law? Is the fact that all of us MP's are put on a lower level than lay people, following love, or law. Pax et Bonum. [All personal letters get included, including controversial letters, in the DD despite my stated preferences for using the space in other ways. I rarely cut even for length and repetitiveness. No one is slighted, particularly not Joe Smith. With the eight-page, regular postage newsletters, the problem is space, not preference. When an issue of DD is more than eight pages, I don't cut -- even for length except for egregious repetition and newsletters not directed to DD. This issue was 38 pages in regular typescript before final editing and reduced to PageMaking design size. There would have been almost 75 raw pages had I transcribed all the newsletters. Printing and postage escalate from $225 for 8 pages to $340 for 14 pages to maybe $500 with all the newsletters. - Let's be grateful to the generosity in the Diaspora that makes the little we do possible. - gbs] 16 Nov 99 Rich Yaeger (1973 profession): I very seldom write letters, so please forgive my not writing you. If possible, I would like to remain on the mailing list of the wonderful Diaspora Digest. I very much enjoy hearing about many of my old friends was well as hearing about so many unique and dedicated people. I am married, with three boys running around, one in college, two in high school. My wife Peggy is a first grade teacher at a small Catholic grade school. I taught high school students for 21 years. Recently, the high school closed its doors for financial reasons. Now, I am working with a Franciscan Sister at "Peace Place" in Williamsburg, Ky. We have organized a Respite Care Program for developmentally disabled adults and children. I love working and being with these folks. They teach me something new every day. My new address is 375 Harold LeForce Rd., Williamsburg KY 40769. Thanks for your efforts to keep the rest of us informed. God bless this work. [Great story. Thanks for writing, neighbor. gbs] 16 Nov 99 a clipping from Chicago Sun-Times via Joe Smith: Headline: "Archbishop confesses Catholic guilt in anti-Semitism." - "In a bold prayer admitting centuries of anti-Semitic practices by his church, Milwaukee's Roman Catholic archbishop last Sunday brought tears of relief to hundreds gathered for an interfaith service at a Jewish synagogue in his diocese. "For some, it evoked the spirit of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, whose death three years ago will be marked this Sunday." The archbishop is the atypical gem, Rembert Weakland who continued, "By doing so, I confess that we Catholics contributed to the attitudes that made the Holocaust possible," said the leader of 700,000 Roman Catholics in 10 southeastern Wisconsin counties. He said the baggage of 2000 years is not cast off in a decade. 19 Nov 1999: Jack Bartz to Paul Stubenbort: Paul, I'm glad you received my quick missive. I also appreciate your personally contacting as many of the current-former guys (and families) as possible to determine what their interest level is in attending this conveniat-reunion. Yes, I was at Mayslake from 1956-62 and you were my teacher--sorry if I'm not correct on this, time ya' know, but were you not teaching us English? Also, Diz Bonner was superior and teacher at CTU while I was there 1968-70 until ordination. BJ was our assistant novice master at T-town under "goll-eee men" (guess who) our novice master. George McDevitt taught us speech at Quincy while I was there at OLA (first in Cleveland 1963-1964, then Quincy 1964-1966). And, finally, I don't remember how many classes I had with Gerry Etzkorn (Logic, French, maybe history of philosophy). Other classmates of mine you might remember were Frank Roetheli (in Brazil), Bill Szorady, Ed Rung, Dave Struckhoff, John Laker, etc. It sure has been nice to hear from you again. 19 Nov 99 Gael Stahl writes: Bill McGee and wife Alice Waco flew from Santa Rosa (home of Peanuts and Charles Schultz) to Indianapolis. They drove with Mike Mooney in his RV (retirement vehicle) to Nashville, picked up your editor who got under the wheel and careened them part way to Columbus, Ga., where Fort Benning is infested by the School of the Americas (whose graduates have butchered so many). I'd never driven an RV before, and by the outskirts of Nashville the protesters on board had lost their breakfasts and were praying to live past lunch. In Columbus that night, our hearts were lifted by a gathering under a huge white, flaring tent of Jesuit university students, Maryknoll missionaries, and various devotees of South American martyrs. On Saturday the 20th, we attended a morning non-violence workshop, then went to the gates of Fort Benning to join the maybe 10,000 thousand who gathered to hear speakers and join Pete Seeger in song. There was another impressive tent revival that evening. I spent a good amount of time trying to persuade fringe friar Charlie Bloss not to get arrested and risk six months in jail for being a two-strikes your out offender. I failed to persuade him even though he admitted: "Irving (his wife) would kill me." He has a new job helping folks get needed medical benefits. We also sighted and visited provincial representatives in the crowd: Joe Zimmerman and half a dozen QU students, Tom Fox, Frank Coens, Mike Cusato, Al Merz, and Jim Hoffman - maybe others. On Sunday the 21st, Alice went to the head of the line to cross over into the Fort off- limits area. Bill McGee and I encouraged 5,000 who crossed the line and promised to bail them out, if necessary. We joined the thousands who didn't cross in cheering the buses that left the Fort loaded with demonstrators and returned empty. The crossers had been left at a city park. They walked back, Alice in the lead, followed by Merz and Mooney, and finally, as we were preparing to leave, Bloss appeared, no worse for my worry. The exodus from town began. Needless to say, Mike drove all the way back to Nashville and by midnight we arrived at Peckerwood having talked all the way, after a refreshing, soul- knitting three days. On Monday the 22nd, I went to work while Mike hooked up with Charlie Fenton (his driver to SOA last year) and Nashvillian Karl Meyer, the Catholic Worker, anti-death-penalty radical we'd known in Chicago. Susan and I joined them at the Meyer house for a few hours conversation that evening and really, folks, our hearts burned as we recognized the man of Emmaus while gathered around the dining room table and talked of family and movement, and how Karl was booked. He described how the military at the Fort had prepared facilities to arrest and do the paper work on 10,000 folks, had events taken that turn. Instead the government backed down, renamed the school, changed some courses, and hopes to get most of its funding again next year. But the hand writing is on the wall. SOA is destined to go. It used to be in Panama City (Noriega is a graduate). Maybe it will return. 21 Nov 1999 Richard Mayer: Sent the address for St. Francis of Assisi in Oakville, MO. [It's in St. Louis.] The latest on our medical adventures since you were here [for a quick Sherlockian conference one Saturday in September]: Sept. 24: Linda twists right knee while we are doing a few cha-cha steps at an outdoor restaurant at Westport (where you stayed). The cement was non-skid, not meant for dancing. No ligament damage but she fractures tibia plateau (top of tibia). Has to use crutches for four weeks. Oct. 6: Linda has cataract surgery and lens implant on right eye. Vision is not good and doctor finds that the prescription got screwed up. Oct 16: Son Matt separates shoulder playing touch football and has surgery on Nov 4 to reattach collarbone. Oct 27: Jeep skids into front of Linda's car after collision with another car. Some added knee discomfort, but no further injury. Nov 18: Linda has second eye operation to remove wrong lens and insert "right" lens. Doctor is blaming the problem on a faulty instrument. At least he had the honesty to tell us that the lens was not right; he probably could have gotten away with saying, "Well, you can never be sure about what lens you'll need," since her vision was still correctable with contacts. This operation is taking a little longer to recover from. It seems better, but we're not sure yet. In between, we did get a week in San Francisco (Nov 6-12) courtesy of Boeing. I attended a conference and we saw a few sights. Meanwhile, I am doing fine after the angioplasty. My exercise program is making a big difference. You are absolutely right about the value of exercise. Keep it up. 22 Nov 1999 Gael's response: Dick, Thanks a bunch for that mind-boggling update. Wow, man! You are being tested for the baccalaureate or master's or doctorate in Perfect Joy at Perfect Joy University. - Just got back from School of the Americas event in Columbus, Georgia, going with Mike Mooney, Bill McGee and Alice Waco and returning with Mike last night. He's asleep in his RV outside as I write early this morning. We had good visits with former schoolmates Al Merz, Charlie Bloss, Tom Fox, Joe Zimmerman (and some Univ of Quincy students), Frank Coens, Mike Cusato, and Jim Hoffman. BTW, my greatest regret in the hard copy of the news letter was having to cut so much of your letter. It was editorial Perfect Joy, blood dripping from my veins, as it were. 23 Nov 1999 Joan Burds: Gael, Thanks for your warm and generous response - a true Gaelian response - My crazy world, yes - well it always seems to be an excess of things to do in a minimum amount of time. However, it got particularly worse last winter when my 90-year-old mother (remember her? you met her at Bill Stachura's funeral) came down with a terrible case of shingles and then fell and broke her pelvis. I thought driving the 35 miles each way to the hospital was difficult for the 20 days she was there after her fall, but having full care of her at home was even more so, despite the couple hours a week the home nurses came for awhile. She was in terrible pain, more from shingles than from the hip, though that was bad enough. She still is not totally over the shingles. Between medication and pain she became like a toddler in an adult body with an adult attitude, couldn't remember much of anything and definitely could not be trusted alone. So it was rather crazy around here and it greatly restricted our lives here. Though she is a whole lot better her memory has not come back like it was before all this happened and she can and does ask the same things over and over again. It's sad, she's a very bright woman and interested in many things. It is also a constant reminder of my own aging process. Not remembering what I said to you years ago from my more youthful arrogance, I have often thought what a self-righteous person I must have been. However, my politics have not changed, i.e. moved toward the right or center. Rather they have deepened to greater understanding of the human condition and the incredible ability of humans to screw up themselves and their world. I am not so quick to point my finger at anyone but myself. As long as I don't put forth the effort to live a solution I can't say too much about or to anyone else. Though I have to say I/we do try to live decently in our own small way and raise objections to the powers that be. I have to confess I am overwhelmed at what is going on the corporate and global level and recognize that most of us will be reduced to pawns. I can't begin to explain a statement like that here. Sometimes I'm really scared for our children, and sometimes I think, "What the hell, the world has always been this way, who am I to think it can be changed?" (Note above that I said "a solution", not "the Truth". I am leery of those who possess "the Truth". Too many of those folks around here. [Yeah, especially our tendency to confuse truth with reality, i.e., truth being our take on what's there as opposed to what's actually there.] Yes, I remember Angel though I only met her a couple of times. I came late on the scene at Corps. I must run. Thanks for your ear, actually eye. Love, Joan [Gael's response: Thanksgiving is a great time to read your letter(s) Joan. Thanks thanks thanks for being you, reminding me to be me and sharing the enlightenments that your mother's suffering, our aging and experience, and what being pawns together means. - It IS scary, isn't it? But that's a great insight about it having always been this way more or less even in the Babylonian Empire when the citizens and visiting Israelites were the pawns as we are and always shall be but Amen and alleluia for the saving grace of divine incarnations around us. Be aware but be alive and rejoice if you can. - You can. You have and you will. Ergo you can. QED.] 25 Nov 99 Gael Stahl's Thanksgiving greeting to the DD discussion list: Dear hearts, Susan and I greet you on this day, a representative occasion for us to take stock of our blessings from genes (nature) and from those whose genius for friendship has crossed our paths (nurture). Who can explain how we enter full-fledged into each other's universe of deep feelings? It's a rare gift that brings such pleasure each time we intersect in thought, in word, or in person. Just wanted you to know that. Heartfelt from Peckerwood. 26 Nov 1999 Notification of subscription to Diaspora_ofm: This is a typical letter I get when yet another fringe friar joins our ofm diaspora discussion group: "Hello, This is an automatic notification message sent to tell you that jrodriguez of epitrustee.com has subscribed to your community Diaspora_ofm. - ONElist http://www.onelist.com" I hope y'all will keep joining in until we reach the density of members needed to make this a daily fun thing. 29 Nov 99 Jose Rodriguez: Gael - Thanks for the welcome. I was preparing a little summary of my diaspora days but it appears it was garbled in the electronic translation. I will find it again? or redo it and send it off. [Do it.] I really enjoy the DD and applaud your efforts. I am a bit behind you guys but I heard a lot about your classes. I am looking forward to sharing war stories. 29 Nov 99 Father Jim Flach's stationery letterhead lists parishes from three towns in the Marine, Illinois area. He says: Many thanks for sending DD. I would like to continue to receive it because when reading it every now and then I recognize a familiar name. Please place the donation towards the cost of the newsletter. Most of the individuals who write in the Digest are not in my age group as I am in my early 40s, but I find the topics interesting and enjoyable to read. 30 Nov 99 Bob Willford of Lombard IL (1966): responded after Gael asked in a Diaspora list group discussion, Do we know each other: Your [1960 profession] class was in novitiate when I started my freshman year at St. Joe's. Chris Reuter's brother, Paul (nee Ken), was in my class, and it was primarily through knowing them that I became acquainted with the Franciscans. I liked what I saw and heard enough to join Paul in heading off to St. Joe's in August of '59. So looks like we were kind of like ships passing in the night. I'm sorry, because from everything I can put together, you guys were one neat (dated term?) class. spirit, upbeat, lots of camaraderie, etc. But better late than never could apply here. Glad I've had the chance to meet and get to know you and a couple of the others at least at this point. Pax et bonum, Bob (dubbed "Woozy" by "Cowboy" Mazar). Gael responded: Woozy rings a bell. And so do you. I remember Paul Ken Reuter well. But I haven't put a face to my memory of you so maybe it's a literary memory. You are right about our class. I lucked into a marvelous group, a little bit of everything. It would take a long time to say what that entails. The bios of each with Medard's two cents on each one would be pretty special. But lots of classes were above average. 30 Nov 99 John Miller: I've tried to encourage Cowboy to get on line, but he has resisted. A number of months back, I thought he might, but he's gone back to "never." I saw him and the Newmans last month. Dennis started his new job at Thanksgiving. Had Greg Guerrero at our Thanksgiving table, and he's looking well. He was "Eustace" in the Order, and we used to call him "Useless." He's presently taking care of a terminally ill young man and doing his real estate business as well. Greg is also a great cook (maybe he would have stayed if they put him there), and I wish we had him as a cook at OLA. He cooks a great chicken mole'. Also stopped in at St. Peter's, before the holiday, to see Francis Jerome Gray. I had been subpoenaed in an abuse case to a downtown location, so I dropped in, "unannounced." He happened to be hearing confessions, so I went in to give him "a hard time." I wanted to take him to lunch, but he didn't have time. He's having great difficulty getting around, as his leg muscles have atrophied, from the polio. He falls quite often, and recently fell, but won't go to the "quack." I worry about him because he would never complain and doesn't want to cause anyone any extra trouble. A "humble friar" he is, and I will never forget his kindness and caring for me. Many at the old Quincy College (seminary) would never have made it, except for him. Peace to everyone and have a great Holiday. I'm trying to write less often, so you won't publish it. [Ha. I bet I don't print one in 20 letters from you.] 30 Nov 99 Rod Farrell: Recently the departed Joe Smith (gone but not forgotten) appeared to me in the crook of a tree by twilight and handed me the following message: "I'm in heaven weekends but spend working days in purgatory. Incidentally, indulgences no longer work here. Also, the deity instructed me to say that infallibility was not where it's at any more, being too politically motivated and all. Rather, it's a matter of covenant faithfulness (or not) by the involved partners, thus a matter of the community or people, not of one hieratic person, however clad in finery for the occasion. J.C. had asked Peter what all the fuss was and how it figured in at all. (Just passing this along.) "Also, when I wrote about 'harmless cordiality' it had nothing to do with those who took 'stunned' umbrage at it. It had to do with the OFM 'Plan' being only cordial rhetoric, with any changes or real relationships postponed for 20 years. Also, with regard to the Lutz/Smith entretemps, the apostles all urge tolerance and acceptance, not high dudgeon by the pious, whose ears get easily offended. Recently even the Chicago diocese urged frank dialogue between segments of the church community: and with forbearance and oneness. After all, we might learn from other's faith experiences. "It gets boring in heaven; and I look forward to purgatory weekdays. It's hot here; but we've made a great sauna out of it. Most of my friends are here. A juice bar has also been installed by several former angels. We have great discussions on real issues and have fun with some intellectual games, too. Most of all, it's free - mortgage to pay either." After this short appearance, Smith again vanished behind one of those convenient clouds, and a voice was heard: "That's it for now, folks." Just sharing these fuckin' great truths (and shtick) with pious (and thin-skinned) readers. Respectfully (as it were), Rod Farrell. 2 Dec 1999: Dennis Koopman: Hi Jack, A very big thank you to you and Gael
for editing the DD. Please put Dennis Koopman and Jim Hoffman on the e-mail
version. Our e-mail address is 2 Dec 99 Jack Bartz: R.I.P. Boniface Baum, OFM passed away Nov. 27 in St. John's Hospital in Springfield, IL, at the age of 80. His health had been declining for the past several weeks; most recently he had been supported by a ventilator. A wake service was held at Villa West in Springfield and also in the chapel of Mayslake Village in Oak Brook. The Liturgy of Resurrection was celebrated in the Mayslake Village Chapel with burial in Queen of Heaven cemetery. -- Gene Katoski published a mini necrology with photos in his Seniors newsletter in March 2000 Issue of Senior Friars Talk: Dacian Bienek died 5/8/97 at 80, Silas Musholt died 8/5/99 at 71, Michael Lange died 8/5/99 at 79, Jerome Baum died 8/13/98 at 77, Fabian Merz died 11/2/99 at 85, and Tarsicius Fischer died 2/20/98 at 80. Except for Lange (who was in Brazil 32 years) and Bienek, my generation knew these well at the sem. - Minor Matters of Nov/Dec said Willi (Aquinas - 1957) Schmidt and Laurin Buzynski also died. 6 Dec 1999: Phil (Eugene) Pavich: Medjugorje ...way after midnight. Peace! First, blessings and greetings to you. I still have my own memories of the youthful and impish 1960s smiling faces of each one of you in my mind - neither of which has been disturbed by an "update" corresponding to the way you look tonight! Brothers, you should see me at pushing 70! (May 12, 1930) [Phil was Gael's and my assistant novice master under Fr. Alban Schwarz. Phil was gracious enough to give us baseball scores that year since our beloved White Sox were in the World Series with the Brooklyn Dodgers.(1959) The Sox were mauled and haven't played in the Series since! Phil, I remember you as being a kind and gentle soul who respectfully paid attention to what we had to say. I also remember with delight that you had a hard time staying awake for midnight choir meditation. I learned a valuable life lesson from you: God certainly intended us to be human and that being human was good. JB.] First, I want to thank you for continuing to e-mail me the DD's. I have enjoyed them. Will try to write you some kind of an update on myself one of these days. Gael, I have received several hard copies of DD in the mail. Thank you, but that is not necessary any more since I am happy to get them on line. This DD29 is the only one I have not had a chance to carefully read yet. I got it Nov 6 while in the US just before going back to Israel for my second pilgrimage. I was gone to the Holy Land from Oct 6 - 17 guiding a pilgrimage of 50 people through the Holy Places, then a visit in the states for medical check up and a few Marian conferences, then another pilgrimage with 41 from Nov 12-22 returning to Medjugorje. I went to the Holy Land with groups 4 times this year. I am glad that I can still manage it. The pilgrims all seem to think I have plenty of energy, though I don't "feel" that way. In your list of "unknowns" I happened to notice Croatian confrere Fr. Mark Kozina from Chicago's southside parish of Sacred Heart. Marko was a Croatian refugee from Central Bosnia - saw his own father being killed. He joined the ordination class of 58 at OLA in Cleveland around 1952 and went through OLA and T-town with the JJ Lakers class. There were 17 of them ordained June 24, 1958: John Joseph Lakers; Ephrem Brummer; Leonard Megjugorac; Campion Clarahan; Nivard Foust; Dismas Bonner; Lullus Duffy; Floyd Miller; Maurus Hawickhorst; Malachy Mahon; Jogues Epple; Augustine Hellstern; Cyriac Carolan; Josaphat Stubenbort; Brennan Schmieg; Claver Schmitt; and Camillus Vahl I don't know why Mark Kozina's name is not on this list, but he was in this class. I see Mark occasionally at the Croatian house at 4848 South Ellis ave, Chicago 60615 when I am in Chicago. I have never discussed the DD with him and cannot speak for him as to whether he would want to receive the hard copy any more or not. My class of June 24, 1957 was like this: the + are deceased. - 2 left: +Paul Smith; Raymar Bobber; +Thaddeus Trpin; +Christopher Sedlak; Eugene Pavich; +Burchard Fuerst +Anthony Dukich (Croatian Custody); -Chrystostom "Don" Kemner; +Claude Buchanan; Evan Eckhoff; Malcolm (John) Hogan; -Timon Lund; Nathan McNally; +Reginald Phillipp; Miro Wiese;; +Ives Schmieg; and Sennen Rosswog Chris "Don" Kemner and Timon "Frank" Lund were the two who retired from priestly ministry. Don Kemner is the younger brother of Fr. Kieran & Gregory in Brasil. I saw him at his home in St. Louis area around 1994. He had adopted a couple oriental boys. He was a very successful as an All State insurance man. He was also big into some unique brand of government he was pushing. Do you ever contact him? None of us ever had a clue about what happened to Frank Lund. He disappeared from Hales FHS in early 60's. It was thought he went to Louisiana and married. I'll throw this in too. Tony (Rupert) Lutz was in 5th class in 1944 when I started in 1st class at St. Joe's Westmont. I always liked Tony and looked up to him as a big upper classman. He was also dear to me because my orphaned classmate Tony Dukich was taken into their home and lovingly cared for. In general, I find myself in agreement with what Tony writes. Simply put, he has "kept the faith". I would just wish for everyone to have the kind of faith that Tony Lutz has. Its no problem for me to be identified with his kind of view of the revelation or even to be categorized as a JP2 conservative type. On Mt. Sion in Jerusalem I fasted 8 days on water back in 1978 for the pope about to be elected - not knowing it would be JP2. So I have a big investment in him! I thank God for him and am glad he's fooled all the gloomers and doomers who had him buried years ago. It looks like Cardinal Wyzcinski's (spelling?) prophecy that he would lead the church into the new millennium is indeed being realized. I also remember Fidelis "Fifi" "Joe" Smith with affection too. We all respected him highly. I was in the novitiate choir stalls at his ordination either on June 24, 1950 as I was entering the novitiate or on June 24, 1951 at the end of novitiate. He had a brilliant mind, was a fantastic organist and thrilled us with his wonderful performances in the old seminary and St. Francis Church organ at T-town - especially his great finales after a big Solemn High mass. I can still remember the pained shock around Dec 8, 1963 when I heard that he had left the priesthood. I surprised him one day at OLA in Cleveland around 1971 or so when I called out to him by name as he came walking through the front door of the old OLA entrance on Rocky River Drive. I think he was teaching music then at nearby Oberlin college. I was assistant pastor at OLA at that time from 1969-1972. I invited him down to the old refectory for coffee and we had a long talk. He seemed pleasantly surprised that I knew him and welcomed him. It seems to me he came back a couple more times after that. I do remember he was quite firmly set against celibacy and was not at all hesitant about speaking his negative opinions, but since I was having my own struggles I didn't give him any strong opposition. I sympathize with everyone who struggled and left. I came to the point of nearly doing it myself. But I am deeply grateful to the Lord for the grace to have struggled and stayed. Because I personally know both Tony and Joe, I don't mind their "polemics". I rather understand where they are coming from. I think I'm more surprised by all the "polemic" expressions against them by those "booing" them into silence. I guess I thought the DD readers would somehow be a little more tolerant of them after all they've been through themselves. I must admit that I am shocked to learn that someone like Joe Smith who would lead you to think that he is so intelligent and "with it" has still not caught up with the cyberspace world we're living in and at least learned to e-mail his stuff to you instead of writing old "dinosaur" long handed letters from the middle ages that you have to re-type for him. Wow! I admire your patience for putting up with that for so long. Around Nov 4 I had a nice visit with Fr. Gentil "Gene" Katoski at his St. Patrick's rectory "attic" apartment in Cleveland. He looks great for his 81 or so years, but openly admits that his memory loss bothers him. We were both from the same parish - St Mary's in Waterloo, IA and I served for his first mass back in July 1945 at the end of my first year at St. Joe's. Later we were together on the faculty at St. Joe's (1962-1965) Westmont and at OLA in Quincy (1965-1967). Definitive proof that his memory is slipping was the fact that he amazingly did not remember this story. While I was master of clerics at OLA Quincy (1965-1967), one night I went to bed smoking. I always carefully put the cigarette back on the little square glass ash tray above my head after each drag. But I suddenly fell asleep. The next thing I remember was waking - with the lights on - the room full of smoke pouring out a hole in the mattress right next to my head. The ash had upset the center of gravity and the cigarette but had flipped out of the ash tray above my head, and landed on the mattress beside me. By 2 am or so it had really burnt a big red hot hole deep into the mattress and was billowing smoke out of the hole. I immediately turned on the blower to draw the smoke out of room. As I touched the mattress it singed and turned all brown under my touch. The mattress was red hot deep in side, but had not burst into flame. I supposed I could have been overcome by the smoke though. I began pouring water into the mattress black hole until the fire was out. But sleeping on that mattress was now hopeless. So I got up and carried the ruined mattress over the basement on the lay students' side. There were some brand new mattresses there still in their brown paper sleeves. I pulled out a brand new mattress and then inserted the damaged mattress into the brown paper sleeve, covering up the damning evidence. I returned to my room and fell asleep again on my new mattress. I "forgot" to say anything about the incident. Some weeks later Gents was down in the basement on some clean up project and "discovered" the ruined mattress. A howl went out over on the lay students' side and "Gentil" threats were circulating against the culprit lay student who would dare to have done such a dastardly thing. Woe to that poor student! It wasn't long and Gents was fulminating about it in the friars' refectory one day. I could remain silent no longer. I confessed everything to Gents and told him to back off the lay students - that I had done it myself! That ended the mattress episode and the lay students all breathed a sigh of relief that I was the guilty party. Thank God I fought and struggled through till I quit smoking on my 39th birthday in Riverton, IL on May 12, 1969 and never touched or even desired a cigarette after that date. It was one of God's very special graces to me. I think I would certainly be numbered among my deceased classmates today had I not quit smoking 30 years ago. Well, Jack & Gael, again much peace and love to you from "Euge" out there in cyberspace. Keep the DD coming. I've got to get to bed. Hope to write you some more some time. I've been hearing confessions here 12 years already, after 11 years in the Holy Land. How quickly the years go by. I'm in my 43rd year of ordination. My greetings and prayerful best wishes to you - one and all. May you all have a most blessed last Advent in this millennium and a grace-filled and joyous celebration of Jesus' birth. With deep fraternal respect and affection... 6 Dec 99 John Miller: In a letter to Gael says: William (Bill) Norris was also in our novitiate class. He was very talented in the arts of music and drama. For many years he played "Scrooge" at the Goodman Theater, and I think he is still acting in and around Chicago. He, along with John Mahoney [Frasier's dad], got their start here. I think I told you John was my roommate at QC my freshman year of college. John was a few years older, as he had spent some time in the Army to get his US citizenship. He is British, by birth, born in Manchester, and had a sister who lived somewhere in Southern Illinois. When we were in novitiate, Norris was choir director, and my partner as "brother host makers." I don't recall when he left, but Dennis took over as choir director thereafter. [I just love these friar flowerlets. Isn't Mahoney marvelous on 'Frasier.' - gbs] 6 Dec 99: Joe Smith: sent DD the November 1999 and 1998 issues of comic Chicago tabloid The Onion. Lots of headlines along the line of "My teddy bear collection is fucking great, and Secretary of State makes diplomatic visit to totally fucked-up country;" and captions reading like: "Is that the cutest fucking thing, or what?" [In 1953-55 at St. Joe's we had a classmate who used a form of "fetch" for every other word he spoke. Funny at first, then boringly offensive as this f- word is, though I use it too much myself. -gbs] 7 Dec 99 Carroll Mizicko OFM of Monroe LA sent his Christmas newsletter. The parish is doing well. The upper-grades part of the school is rented out to community service agencies. Carroll reports to jail every Thursday for four hours of chaplain work. His brother Bob is still a Brazilian missionary, brother Melory and family are in west Chicago, sister Joan and husband are in Philadelphia. 12 Dec 99 Marcia Ditter sent her Christmas newsletter. It's interesting but has news similar to her more Diaspora-directed letter of Nov 10 above. 13 Dec 1999 Dick Korn: Happy holiday season. For some weeks now I've been wanting to send the attached info sheet that Madeleine and I have prepared (and recently updated) for a couple of Ukrainian guests that we have had over the past year or two. I found it interesting that we have had to change quite a few items because of changes in our commitments and schedules. Really this is a banal piece of news for the DD; but somewhere along the line I read that readers want to know personal pieces of people they've known. I guess that I'm in a communicating mood, as I am with receipt of each DD to which I haven't contributed. Thanks for all that you and JB do to facilitate the sharing. At the moment I'm anxious to do a piece that deals with Samuel Ruiz' resignation as bishop in Chiapas after having been appointed by John XXIII as a conservative scholar type and subsequently "converted" by his people with the attempt by ordinary Joes and Janes to "convert" the powers-that-be of the WTO via the Battle in Seattle. Through my Intercultural Studies course at Franklin University I've come to want to discuss the practice of domestics in much of the developing world as a procedure to maintain the semblance (if not the reality) of belonging to the rich and influential, and having control, when in fact developing world destinies are decided in Capitol Hill cloakrooms, Wall Street boardrooms, or Geneva WTO huddles. I've been certified, finally, by the FCM and the Ohio Secretary of State to do marriages; am most interested in doing Hispanic weddings that the Paulists at Ohio State's Newman Center may send my way. Speaking of hispanics, I'm also working with FLOC in the Toledo area toward general amnesty for the undocumented, especially the farm workers. With the Worldwide Humanitarian Aid group I'm wanting to join a Columbus Dispatch photographer, Mr. Steinbrenner and El Duque to send a Batmobile (with Pastors for Peace) to Cuba; the Batmobile would include as many pieces of new and used baseball equipment as we can get to Havana and beyond. Let's be present to the present of the present as we watch for Emmanuel now and into 2000. 15 Dec 99 Jack Brennan: To answer you question, Zeke, the job at Deaconess Hospital goes well. My bosses are enthused with my ideas about working with the cardiac patients. I am where I began as a priest. I am hobnobbing with the chaplains and doctors to bring solace to the wounded. I work 20 hours a week at the hospital and no more than 20 at my private practice (including paper work). Each enhances the other and I'm liking both a lot. I alternate between loving the job and wanting quit before my soul is consumed by the hospital milieu. I love the excitement of the hospital, but the stress of it drains my energy. I am tired when I get home and have to push myself to be with my kids and Gayle in some meaningful way. At times, I fear, I do not make it to that place. But what else is there for me? I have been thinking about "making a mark in life." I consider how my life has been spent (sound familiar?) and I think that it has been well spent and wasted in some ways. It's not that making a mark is so important but that living a life that is commensurate with those years we spent in figuring out "Why there is being rather than non-being?" a la [our classmate] Jerry Klein. I miss those days when Klein would challenge our assumptions and ask those penetrating questions about life. And, irony of ironies, when I talk with Jerry, it feels as if he has moved on from those great struggles to become focused on his work. At times I feel that I am coming to the end of life. And yet, I want to deny that possibility and think that I am as a teenager: indestructible. But I know better. Am I working in a hospital because if I collapse with a dreaded heart attack, they will revive me again and again? I think that I need to return to therapy. Where is therapy when you need it? Affectionately 16 Dec 99 Gael to Jack Brennan: If it's any 'surcease of sorrow,' know that I often arrive home dead tired, (almost fall asleep driving home some nights) and if I sit down to read a newspaper, nod off, cut out and head for bed by 8 or 8:30, and in general wonder if turning 60 turned me toward depression, despondency, lackadaisicalness, ineptitude, incertitude, clumsiness, ineptness (Lots of ways to say the same thing), and death bound. It's been a surprise because turning 50 was a wonderful experience. You are older, more experienced at being 60, and it sounds to me like you are doing fine. Besides, your ticker is more sensitive and you need to work toward self-preservation with so many depending on you. I have only one dependent. I think you should relax, forgive yourself, declare yourself a big success, an early success, enjoy the laurels, do more kinds of exercises you enjoy, do more leisurely things you enjoy, stay as affectionate as you are, practice it on anyone you choose, and in general, keep in touch so I can believe in myself too. Happy, happppy, new year. You better live forever or I'll be distraught (don't get stressed about that, just do it). And I'm glad you are back to the hospital work where you are needed. Your therapy is needed too, but maybe not as much as what you are doing. Like Jerry, we can only take the paths we can clear and hack our way through. We'll all come out into the clearing and be together. But the map keeps changing. Some of us ask for directions, some don't, but we'll all get there. Jerry certainly will. You will. I hope to. If not, go on without me. I'll catch up when and however I can. Affectionately is just right for us fringe friars and friends. I'll be reading over your last letter many times. I'm glad you write those kind seasonally. I need them. You are the compass I look to in the mail. Thanks. 16 Dec 99 Mary Stachura of Elgin IL: Year 1999 certainly hasn't been dull or the same old same old. It's been one thing after another - plenty of challenge, pain, growth, fun, and happiness. My three sons continue to fill my life. This is Mike's second year at DePaul - living in an apartment in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago. His father would have had fun giving him a hard time about his ambition to be a Yuppie. Mark is a senior and gaining real life experiences on his part-time job at a big credit card company here in Elgin. Marty has arrived at my high school as a freshman. He glows in the fact that nobody will mess with him much as his mighty big brother Mark will take care of the situation. I like the poem of Clarissa Pinkola Estes: "Whenever you raise a child, leave the hairy roots on, the dying leaves - under the new leaves - and the dirt clogs swaying behind so that they have something to dance with in life - something to show them - remind them that they are made from the dust of earth and the dust of stars - something to point them toward home - for if you make them too clean the visitor cannot find the way in. We are all of us flying in the saddle of a horse called 'fast home' .. and in the bottom of the foot we find the answers written by the miles we covered in the dark." I like the poem not only for the message it gives me in relating to my own sons but also for my own search for 'home.' I have been searching for several years for a spiritual support group of sorts - not really sure what I was looking for and not sure if I would know it if I found it. But being part of several parish groups, I knew when I didn't find it. And, some of you will smile when you learn where I did discover a wonderful group - a convent! Every Monday evening a group of 10-12 women gather at the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse (of all places) in Bartlett. This is a religious group in the best sense of the term - a group that reflects, affirms, supports, questions life. This is a group that reminds me that I am connected to the earth and the stars and am on my way 'home.' Maybe we'll see you this summer at Oak Brook. We can put our feet up and talk about the miles. [Thanks, Carol. We'd love to sit and look at the bottom of your feet too, and see where the miles have taken you. Amazing that you used our former address: Peckerwood Heights, Needmore Road - no numbers, and we still got it - probably due to the assistant post master, a friend of ours. E-911 renumbered us to the mundane: 1763 Needmore Rd.] 17 Dec 99 The Cantlons of Montana newsletter: The '99 update is six pages of colorful family news. Chas and Margie still "Busy, Frantic" says the headline. YMCA youth soccer and basketball seasons, 20th year of Chas in DJ business, 7th for Margie. Usana nutritionals helped Zac's thyroid problem. Now C&M are distributing it. Kids graduating, doing well. Photos of Sun Meadow Resort, where a new nudist resort is taking shape 30 minutes south of Coeur d'Alene. For more, see: www.ronan.net/~cmc/ 19 Dec 99 Francis Roethli of Brazil: Christmas greeting to all. Year 2000 will finally arrive with all kinds of speculations, commotion and hopes. There is the "Bug", people withdrawing their money from the banks so they don't lose it, others won't travel by plane, others expecting the end of the world. We prefer to be more optimistic and with the arrival of Year 2000 we would like to thank the Good Lord for each and all of you who have in one way or another been a part of our lives and hope that the Year 2000 brings the best of all blessings to your lives and homes. In January 1999, we went to Santar‚m to visit with Elisia's family and had a wonderful time. Her mother is 88 years old, still in good health considering her age, and still able to do small things around the house. On Jan. 22nd we had almost everyone of the family together, as on this day we were "officially" married in a church ceremony. Francis received his dispensation some time ago and we thought it would be nice to have the ceremony in Santarem with Elisia's family. Bishop Ryan, who is now retired and was bishop when we worked there, was the celebrant. [Congratulations from all of us.] Eddie (19) was able to pass the entrance exams he took last year in December and in February started to study Computer Science in a private university, in another city about an hour and a half bus ride from here. The first semester he did fairly well, but in October he decided to discontinue as he was having a lot of difficulties and also he found out that this was not what he wanted. It was too late for him to sign up for the entrance exams the end of this year, so he should take some courses here and also see if he can get at least a part time job. Joel (17) is finishing up the second year of high school, and in February will enter the last year. The end of next year he will face the entrance exams for the university. Ronnie (12) is finishing up the 6th year in grade school. He's real tall and growing a little too fast, and after consulting a doctor because of some back pains, we found out that he had to have some swimming therapy, which he has twice a week, and is enjoying a lot. Elisia is kept busy taking care of the house and the three boys, with their studies, their activities, and problems. She found a prayer group she is taking part of in the parish. Francis leaves her off at the church on the way to work in the morning. She has enjoyed this experience. For Francis, workwise things are not the best. He has plenty of work as the number of boats has increased from 10 to 23 in the past few years. The big problem is the salary. In the beginning of the year the government, facing economic problems, devalued the local currency in relation to the dollar. Along with this certain items, which depend on importation, such as gasoline have gone up and we have had more inflation. In 1993-1994, when we had extremely high inflation the company policy was to readjust salaries to make up for the loss due to high inflation. But now the company has another area manager, who never learned the language, who lived here for a while, but then move back to the USA as he and his family did not adjust to Brazil. September was the date to readjust salaries but Francis did not get a readjustment, and with this salary is almost half the value it was four years ago. Francis has been trying to get this settled. We have been here for 7 years and were planning to stay here for a long time yet as we have enjoyed being settled down, until this "area manager", if you can call him a manager, showed up. This salary situation is our main concern right now. On this Christmas 1999 and during the Year 2000 we will remember all of you in a special way and we hope that we also hear from you. Our address you have, our phone number is (24) 772-1408 and our e-mail address is francis of castelo.com.br . We would love to hear from you. 20 Dec 99 Paul H. Kertz (Hilaire - '59) of Festus MO: enrolled Susan and me for the novena of Masses and wrote: It was a delight to go to the mail box in November and receive the latest of what is going on with some of my past classmates while I studied for the priesthood in the Sacred Heart Province. I extend to you and your family my very best wishes for such Christmas joy that it never seems to end and may your great Jubilee Year 2000 be filled with the best of health and much papal blessings. 20 Dec 99 Julian Woods [His envelope indicates a new address in southeast Nashville: 2957 Brantley Dr., Antioch TN 37013]: Hope this finds you in good health and happy circumstances. I do thoroughly enjoy Diaspora. Many thanks. I believe I mentioned that my current project is helping a friend from Sierra Leone, West Africa, attain citizenship for herself and four of her five daughters. It takes over three years. With you in Spirit. [Success in your good work - and thanks for the thoughtful check.] 20 Dec 99: Cullan Uhlinger of Cleveland and Jack Christensen of St. Louis called Gael. Cullan said he'd be coming to Nashville to do a deposition in mid-January if the suit weren't settled. He said he'd stay with us, asked if all was well, and I said, Yes. So far not too many unexpected deaths in the diaspora. That night while backing my Saturn into the carport, I backed over Snert as he trotted around to my door to nuzzle, "Welcome home, I love you." All through the '90s, the black and white springer spaniel/border collie mix had been our canine companion. Mooney looked into his Snert's returning gaze a long time one afternoon and said, "The godhead resides in his eyes." Snert breathed not a word, and died before we got him to the vet some minutes later. Cullan's case must have settled out of court because I never heard from him again, and I don't have a phone number to call him. He said to say hello to everybody who reads DD. Jack Christensen called later the same morning from his car while driving to Florida. His voice mail was a promise to call ahead on his return trip Dec. 28 so we could visit awhile. 20 Dec Frank & Marge Daniele of St. Charles IL: I really appreciate receiving the Diaspora Digest. It keeps me in touch with some of the best times of my life. My days spent at St. Joe's are full of fond memories. I drive by there occasionally on the way to my parents' home in Hinsdale. Sometimes I think how fast time has passed since our days at St. Joe's. I wonder where it has gone. Then I reflect on all that I and my family have been blessed with and time just comes together. One of my most cherished memories of St. Joe's is the time spent with my father, Dr. Dominick Albert Daniele (DAD). He would come on Wednesdays and perform dental work on the friars and seminarians. It was also time for us to spend together and catch up on things. My father was a special person. He always was thinking of others before himself. My father is now residing in a nursing home on an Alzheimer Unit. This was a difficult decision for our family. My father was no longer able to care for our mother, who suffered a stroke nine years ago. She now lives with my older sister. My wife and I continue to work hard. Marge is a middle school health teacher in Naperville. She returned to teaching and received her master's degree after staying at home to raise our three children. I have worked as a social worker in health care for 30 years mostly in pediatrics. I was a middle manager for 18 years and, eventually, as many others, didn't survive the last of many reorganizations. I currently am working at Shriners' Hospital for Children in Chicago. We have been blessed with wonderful children. Rob, 29, the oldest, is a police officer in Wheaton. He is married to Nicole, who is an administrative assistant at Aldi Foods, and their daughter Shelby, born 9/21/98, is our first grandchild. Chris, 26, is a middle school teacher in Aurora. He has a wonderful girl friend, Adrienne, from Boston. They are both working on their master's degrees, Chris in educational administration and Adrienne in museum administration. Megan, 22, our youngest, has attended Elgin Community College. She recently graduated from bartending school and is working at Mill Race Inn in Geneva. All three have made our life together a great joy. Marge and I have truly been blessed. Sincerely, with a [generous] contribution for postage. 20 Dec 99: The mail brought from the bishop of Alaska a photo of Joe Hemmer OFM and a map of Alaska that overlaid the United States. Alaska's diocese stretches across Minnesota to Missouri, covering the Dakotas, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Its southeastern arm swung down to South Carolina and it's southwestern area extended through Southern California. 21 Dec 1999: Dan Tanna: (To Nick Baxter, Geri & Paul Langan.) Scooch over you guys so we can get it! [Langan's hot tub.] Maybe someday, Sharon and I will join you to share your traditional west coast yuletide festivities. Dungeness crabs and the works, right? Sharon has worked so hard to get us Christmas-99-compliant this year dealing with nitty gritty stuff like presents for the kids, presents for me, decorating the house, more presents for me, etc. She wants to flee "the city" next year and says we are going to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville for a week. "We're gettin outta here," she says. I love to hear her say it because In recent years I've favored celebrating this marvelous feast of happiness and joy "on the road." And by the way, doesn't "on the road" at Christmas mirror Mary and Joseph's situation? And with a little imagination, isn't there some eternal, liturgical value kept alive by those "on the road" at Christmas? Anyway, scooch over, Guys, 'cause I'm throwing some options on the table in 2000 and one of them will be Christmas in the Langans' hot tub. And I hope you all are setting plans for Conveniat 2000 in Chicagoland! Sharon and I strongly support Dick Mayer's idea to rendezvous Friday night (June 10th?) for a pre-conveniat warm up.He and Linda have to be home that Sunday as it is Pentecost Sunday (an appropriate day to get us all together, don't you think? That Jack Bartz is a master planner!) They would have to leave late Saturday afternoon which wouldn't leave much time to visit. What do you think? This event deserves more than eight hours. It may be the last one many of us attend without a walker. I dropped a line to Jack and Gael after receiving Diaspora #29 thanking them for their "gift that keeps giving" and told 'em we'd be there! We'll be talking to Jerry and Pat Krull over the holidays. I am sure they will come.Ray Konrath is poised, I'm sure, to make an appearance. Got to get the dogs walked and then to work! And then to the mall for some presents (for Sharon)! Nick, how long will you be on the west coast? GIve us an email when you get back to San Antonio with updates, etc. Love to Ya'll et Pax and Bonum! 21 Dec 1999 Jack Bartz to Dan Tanna: Seasons greetings. Thanks for the note and glad to hear you folks are planning to make Conveniat 2000 THE event of the month of June in your busy lives. Also, having someone from each "class" contact classmates is the best way to make the most of each person maximizing the benefits of this get-together. Please spread the word to your classmates and any other folks you see from other classes to get their groups together. That will be the best help we can get to make this a quintessential event for all. May the reindeer not break a leg when they hit the roof at your house. 22 Dec 1999 Gael to Tanna: Great letter from a great writer of (formerly rare) letters. Glad to hear Sharon has Opryland Hotel on her mind for 2000. Advent here followed by "some eternal, liturgical value kept alive by those "on the road" at Christmas" ending up in the Langan hot tub at Christmas. I have often made the feast of JMJ a moveable feast by moving around too. After arriving in Nashville in 1969, I spent the second Xmas in Mexico City and New Year's in San Francisco (when the Mooney's were there in 1970-1 era. Susan and I have spent several in New York City, but now we mostly stay around here visiting a different church at midnight for liturgical fulfillment and Susan's family for dinner/gift exchange and outside play with growing nephews and nieces. 22 Dec 1999: Bill Bergman: Seasons Greetings of Peace to one and all, each of you have had a major impact on my life this year. You all played your perfect part. I have been a Team, Leadership and Change Agent Coach for years. This year I found myself in the other "chair." A very different perspective! I have my physical health back. I feel emotionally more together. I am mentally at peace. Spiritually, I am back in touch with my God as never before. This year I have seen eleven of my friends and peers pass over to the other side through death. Life is not taken away, but changed! For some reason I am very much alive. I have experienced the value of receiving your love back fully. My doctor told me a year ago to change my life style or face a heart attack or stroke. My giving to others and not taking proper care of myself took its toll. I was living in some form of denial. I have forgiven myself. I hope you find it in your power to forgive me, if I have caused you pain or sorrow. I too am growing. I too was hurting. I am healing. I am more at peace now. My vision has been "Peace at home and at work" for a long time, but not something I was experiencing deep down. I hope and believe that you will understand and look beyond my failings. I ask you to grow and demonstrate your own ability of Unconditional Love for others near and dear as well as far and not so dear to you. I encourage you to use Tough Love when appropriate, but always with Unconditional Love in its application and implementation. Today, while walking on Alki Beach for two and a half hours with a friend, I met an elderly man walking on his four-wheel walker. As we encountered him face to face, I said, "Good morning, Sir. What three words of Wisdom do you have for my friend and me?" He responded, "I love you." Continuing, he said, "They are the best conscious and unconscious words to speak on the in-breath and especially on the out-breath." He then looked me straight in the eyes and asked, "Are you a priest?" I stated that I was and he asked my name and I told him. He responded, "Father Bill, keep on doing your work...." Tears rolled down my face. I felt I met God again and I looked at my walking friend and he had tears as well. We had been talking about breathing and the ebb and flow of the sea near by. I then asked my new friend, "What is your name.....?" He responded, "Maestro!" With a big smile, he added, "I have been a voice teacher at the UW and for many people....my latest is a man you might know.....Kenny G.....I taught him about 'out-breath.....'" He smiled and said good-bye....about two minutes later I turned around and he was gone....such is life when we are open to miracles.... Perception and opinion do not necessarily correlate with fact..... This meeting reminded me of the story, The Little Prince. I was touched....I hope you and your hearts open as we celebrate new birth and new hope at Christmas and the turning of the new Millennium. Peace and Everything Good to You and Yours. P.S. Please continue to keep my family in your thoughtfulness and prayers...Thank You! Bill sent "Strength, Courage and Healing Gratitude" as his gift. Over the past thirty years, I have supported and assisted many individuals, couples and families as they processed their own healing growth and change. Over the past fifteen years, I worked with many private and public sector organizations as they searched for meaning and empowerment within their corporate cultures. Traditional management systems are now beginning to understand the effectiveness and efficiency of progressive leadership and team processes in delivering both bottom line profits as well as career satisfaction for employees. This past year I personally and corporately experienced the stress and challenge, which many of my clients brought to me. My own optimism and hope has been an important support to each of you. This year, that same optimism and hope has been my own comfort. Without family, friends, associates and clients like you, the hours of pain and grieving might have been days, weeks or even months. Strength "Know yourself" has been attributed to many scholarly people. I believe that we are born with this challenge and die with it. Everything in between life and death involves the process of this challenge. Our Strengths are the main means of finding out how well we take up this calling. Some people choose to coast after some years and grow both dull and old without deeper meaning to living. They experience death on a daily basis. Others step up and embrace their Strengths and learn and relearn the lessons of living in the now and not just in the past or the future. When we embrace the past or future in the now, we unlock both guilt and fear through the Strength of Unconditional Love in our life. This is the key to everything. Interesting enough, love is as strong as one's faith and hope. Without faith and hope, love dwindles, diminishes and ultimately goes away. This happens when we stay stuck in our denial and resistance. I want to apologize for my own sense of denial and resistance during my lifetime. Recently, this denial and resistance brought me to a divorce and deep family hardship. Please keep us all in your thoughtful prayers as we heal with your support. Courage Courage is an incredible word. The root meaning comes from two Latin words, "Cor," which means heart, and "agere," which means to act/do. Courage then is an "action/doing of the heart." Or another way of saying it, Courage is a "aged heart." There are young people today that have _old souls.' There are elderly people with young, learning and eager hearts. Courage is the new competency, which few understand. Like Unconditional Love, Courage also is rooted in Faith and Hope. Faith is not just a religious mystery. It is the mind's answer to not knowing and understanding, without giving up or despairing. Faith knows and understands the true significance of surrender and submission without becoming codependent or dysfunctional. Faith is always a leap into the unknown. It is faith that brings new birth and new beginnings without known and tangible results. Hope is a modern day quest. It is today's new competency. Hope is steeped in leadership, not management. Hope always finds the way, always sees more light, always searches the darkness and brings understanding, not just knowledge. Hope is the guiding star to our bright future. It was hope, the Star of Bethlehem that brought three Kings to the Manger and the Babe, Jesus. Opening the heart is a life long task and gift. We have been taught from early on to figure things out with our minds and hands. What connects the mind and hands is our heart. Last December, my own doctor told me that my life style had to change, as I was a walking candidate for either a heart attack or stroke. A heart attack affects the heart. A stroke affects the mind. My heart and mind were in conflict over many personal and private broken things. It is my own brokenness that called me to change and to heal. The healer part of me was in great need of healing. I began to walk, meditate and pray. I became more private and my own answer, as difficult as it was, became clearer and sure. I am not a quitter. I do not leave commitments without grave cause and reason. Style differences actually in my own personal and marital life had become clearly values differences. Inside, I was torn, twisted, anxious and deeply sorrowful . How could this happen to me? Why is this going on in me? Where will I go? What will I do? Am I just going through a classic mid-life crisis a little late? I have heard these questions from many of my clients and friends and now it was my turn to look them squarely in the face, breathe deeply and act wisely. I prayed for Courage. Courage brought me to discernment and guidance. I asked for signs and finally begged for no more signs. Decisions are rather easy, even though years in the making at times. Implementing difficult decisions may take years, or actually never be done. I have always been blunt with others. Would I be blunt with myself and my own family members and close friends about my own decision and implementation? Will they understand? What would they say or do? I let go of the questions with Courage. I believe and trust, with faith and hope, that each of you understands in your own deep, personal meaning what I now also understand more profoundly. This journey will continue. It demands growth from many around me, whether they were ready or wanted to grow. I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused in them. I rejoice in the healing this brings to each of you. Healing Gratitude "Healing Gratitude" is an odd phrase. Thanksgiving comes before Christmas. Thanksgiving is a national holiday of Gratitude. Christmas is a spiritual belief about the birth of a man, Jesus, who came to show us how to heal our humanness and brokenness. Thus, Healing Gratitude makes us rejoice humbly. Healing Gratitude simplifies life. Healing Gratitude is the expression of, Faith, Hope and Unconditional Love. Join me as we walk into not just a new decade, nor century, but rather a new millennium. Take your Strength, Courage and Healing Gratitude into your every moment, into every relation-ship and into each breath you breathe. Peace and Everything Good! Bill Bergman 23 Dec 99 Jack Brennan to Gael: We are preparing for the coming of the Christ child here. Gayle and I went to a concert of the "Singing Nuns" on Monday night, a group of "traditional" Catholic nuns. We utterly enjoyed their Christmas program. Patty Duke, the movie star and a patron of theirs, did some really wonderful reading in the program. They travel around the country and sing at various venues. The stipends they get support their community and their K-12 school. When they were in Cleveland, some priest [a liberal whose elevator didn't go to the top floor - gbs] wrote a letter to the editor in the Catholic paper complaining that these nuns were the devil incarnate. He reasoned that they were Satanical because they were not Vatican II compatible. One of the nun's response was published. She said that she hasn't scared anybody in years. In retrospect, I wish that we had moved slower in the '60s so that we didn't lose so many of the folks who loved Latin and the old rituals. A lovely compliment that I am your compass, Zeke, a role I don't deserve but that I will cherish. [Cherish all good things: the gospel, Dorothy, Francis, beauty, the poor, the beloveds, and always remember you ARE a compass, sometimes THE compass. To keep spare compasses handy all through life is the 9th beatitude. - gbs] I am feeling fine, actually. There are memories of Christmas, especially in the Order, that sustain me. I remember that our cords and habits were always cleaned just before Christmas and I recall the task of tying those three knots before going to chapel. Only God and Freud could understand why that is a fond memory; I sure don't. May your Christmas be filled with joy and peace. 26 Dec 99 Jack Brennan: Our whole family went up to Mt. St. Michael's to attend a Latin high mass with the nuns I've known there for years. I really didn't want to go, but Gayle thought we should do something different. The nuns were so happy to see us. They gave us a place of honor in the choir loft. My kids were not happy about the length of the ceremonies nor the Catholic push ups during the mass. But they enjoyed the singing. A couple of lesbian friends of ours went up separately. It was a riot to look down on them below with their hats - actually mantillas. Next day I called them and pretended to be the priest and told them that I noticed them and that they were the kind of chicks we were looking for to join the convent. One of them responded, "I bet they do have our kind of chicks up there, they are just not willing to 'fess up to it." I wrote you that we should have incorporated the vernacular more slowly. I am of the same opinion still, but I could see why we wanted to get away from that format. I experienced a very old feeling about how long and arbitrarily redundant everything was. I had forgotten that the priest reads or chants everything that the choir does. I had forgotten how everything centers around the priest and all his movements. I can see why we (our class at least) was so anxious to get the hell away from all that chauvinism. I could see how serious everybody was and how enslaved to the ritual they were. They needed JOY. The priest's sermon was likewise gloomy: we needed to be pure to approach God. He interpreted "Men of goodwill" as though you could not approach the godhead without first being purified. Don't approach as you are, but as who you wish you could be. The way God made us was not good enough, the message went. I was comforted that there were very few words I had to look across the page to translate. Small comfort indeed. St. Michael's is a religious compound which used to be the Jesuits' theologate for their western province. This "traditional Catholic" group bought the property from the Jesuits. I remember that Bishop Topel told me that the Jesuits later regretted it and tried to buy it back, but could not swing it. These nuns are essentially good folks longing to let their humanity break through. I tried to persuade [our classmate] Bob Pawell to go up there and "convert" them, but he declined based on some bad experiences he'd had with traditional Catholics. I'm sure that I was only the second Franciscan ever to be up there; the first being the one who erected their Stations of the Cross back in the '40s. Most of all, I missed the kiss of peace. So you and Susan take one from us. 28 Dec 99 Jim Wilbur of Evanston: Greetings for the New Year. May it be good to all of us. It was Marty Hegarty who sent in my name to receive the Diaspora Digest. I'm his counterpart in the WEORC activities. He sent my name to you because I know a few of your men, and the Digest is interesting to read. The fact is though, that the only man I keep up with is Julian Woods (just heard from him again yesterday). All the way back to the mid-'40s I remember serving his Mass at Ascension, Oak Park IL, when I was still a seminarian and he would be visiting his sister and family who lived in the parish. My check is to help with your mailing costs in gratitude for the good work you do. At the same time, you can drop my name from your mailing, and I'll continue in direct contact with Julian. [If you have access via e-mail to DD from Jack Brennan or from the Web site, let me know. Otherwise, I'll continue to send DD to you. You obviously enjoy it. That's the only criterion.- GBS] 28 Dec 99 Jack Christensen called Gael on his cell phone while driving north back home. He left Orlando this morning at 3:30 and should make St. Louis for supper by 8. [Better option was to stay and visit, if you ask me, but I loved our conversation. -gbs] His three daughters are doing well. He promised to email me more news, but didn't give me his eddress, so I can't easily hound him to do it. 29 Dec 99 Juvenal Carlson OFM of Brazil: Feliz Natal [on red paper over white handprint]. OK, here we go. We'll start with a designer card, a little hand reaching out - to touch you, to thank you, to love you, to bless you. It's like one on one. The Infant and Divinity. His Hand wants to be touched, loved, thanked, and held by ours. The vicar general of the diocese scene: I work in tandem with the bishop. When he'd not around, I pick up the reins. High point of 1999 - bishop not in town - request to bless the hull of an authentic replica of the small ship on which the Portuguese stumbled on Brazil in 1500. Mob of people - mayor wanted to make a big deal out of it. Photographers, reporters, national television, radio. Over the mike, "Frei Juvenal, get your can up here." In Franciscan habit, no pants. Gave the basin with holy water and a branch to slosh it around to one of the guys. The hull still on the grids on dry land - about two stories high. Shaky improvised ladder. Girded the old loins so the crowds couldn't see my shapely shanks. Sweatily, up we went. A hotshot wingding prayer, closing holy water all over the place, and the blessing for the bloody boat. Holy water raining down on the People of God. Cheers, shouts, clapping. Stumbled to dry land. It was a ball. Never again. The pastoral vicar role: Two of us take care of a parish with nine churches here in the city [Santarem]. Humdrum like every other parish in the world. But a phenomenon has taken hold - the Catholic Charismatic Renovation. It's joy, it's prayer, it's meditation, it's celebration, it's song, it's clapping, it's dancing, it's drums, it's electric guitars, it's the keyboard and synthesizer. Ready made for the kids. They come in droves. The guys say, "We used to come in just to look at the girls. Now we come to participate." Their enthusiasm spills over into the parents and us golden- age people. Sometimes I have more fun than the kids. Worship has to be fun. Pet projects: 1) The nursery of the wee ones is getting bigger and we've branched out to take the "bigger wee ones." Three university girls from Holland and two university boys from Germany are here for six months of volunteer work. 2) Our reborn gang guys call themselves "The Magnifact Team." Their recent project is making rosaries from a hunk of jacaranda wood (one of the noblest woods in Brazil that beats mahogany, a designer item), a spool of wire, and a pair of pliers. You think we could get on some big brother www site listing "designer hand-tooled rosaries made of one of Brazil's most precious woods?" [My Juno e-mail server and many others offer free space for you to put up a web page. Also, I'm sure someone who knows you will/has come through. gbs] 3) The street kids who don't want to take to the streets have been out with volunteered trucks going from house to house (ample free publicity from radio, TV, newspapers, and churches) with the battle cry: A Christmas Without Hunger. They accept imperishable beans, rice, sugar, cooking oil. Five tons of donations to distribute in time for Christmas. Those who don't have much to give go out and get something for those who have less. I pray you had a on-hands Christmas and the Hands of the Lord be upon you during this new Millennium. - Juvie PS: Infinite thanks for Diaspora Digest. A glorious Christmas and beginning of the new big 2000 - bugs and all. 31 Dec 99 Bob Pawell of Chicago sent his Christmas newsletter. 1999 saw lots of workshops on the Enneagram, for nuns, for candidates to the Order on sexuality/spirituality, etc. Franciscan meetings. Bob is assuming directorship of a parish house of study and prayer (including courses in meditation, Tai Chi, solstice retreat, Advent archetypes). - He saw Lion King on Broadway, went to China, and still loves to work in his garden. He's planted a Ginkgo to replace a sick Silver Maple (it's a great story). He plans workshops on masking for Mardi Gras and an evening reflection on Christ the Fool for April Fool's Day. His cat is Tinker Bell (donned in gay apparel: purple bow for Advent, red and green for Christmas). His annual book recommendations include Tasha Tudor's Garden, Sabbath, Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest, and Jesus, the Holy Fool. January Senior Friars Talk (by GK) had a note from Vince Moose Elsen: Kolbe house at Crowley, Texas in North Texas has two new faces and voices to reckon with: Ken Dulzer and Camillus Smith. "We all take turns picking on Matt Kiemen's patriarchal pronouncements." 1 Jan 2000: Tom Shaughnessy: [To Jack Brennan] It's early in the morning but the only time my e-mail seems to work. Glad you enjoyed my picture with Ms. San Antonio. Now that I am in my "young-old" age, I try and do those ridiculous things that got us in trouble when we were at Joliet. ... I sent in the picture ["Minor Matters," May, 1998.] you saw, not knowing if they would print it. Yes, I wonder how we all survived those years in Joliet... I guess you heard that Francis Stein (remember Br. Frankie?) died - the oldest Friar in the Province. Yes, I will give Nick your message; [on how to transition from young to old - gracefully] as we continue to have good times together. You sound very happy and all seems to be going well with you. This is my third year in San Antonio, which is a very good assignment. The Mission is beautiful; and we have a good community. In June 2000, our class will be celebrating our 40th year of ordination. Charles Strack along with Jonathan Foster are arranging a get-together somewhere in Minnesota. Whether in or out of the active ministry, our class has managed to get together every five years. We have had five deaths, eleven have left the active ministry. But there is still a close fraternal and Franciscan bonding between the rest of us. That's all for now - good hearing from you, Jack. Shivers. 3 Jan 2000:David Skripsky: Sorry that it has taken me so long to respond to your "call to the unknown." My name was listed in the November '99 issue (with a slightmispelling). Yes, I would like to continue to receive DD. I just started receiving your publication about a year ago. I invested 10 years with the OFM, and I feel that did realize a good ROI. I entered St. Joe's, Mayslake, as a freshman in 1963...Novitiate in 1969 (what a great year!) under Fr.Sylvano Pera at St. Paschal's, Oakbrook...Graduated Quincy College in 1972 with a BFA (under Fr. Tom Brown's excellent direction)...went to CTU for one short semester with Harry Speckman. ...let my simple vows expire at Alverna Retreat House in Indianapolis in 1973. Some of the highlights of my OFM experience include: Cutting down elm trees at Mayslake with GK...band with Ambrose German...cooking with Totts...drawing "running nudes" with Tom Brown...struggling through Greek with Fr. Emmanuel... Talking about the stars with George Windolph...and teaching Maury Smith how to play racquet ball. Classmates (that I can remember) include: Manuel Roman, John Doctor, Henry Willenberg (spelling?). Anyway, as I was saying earlier, my 10 years with the OFM prepared me well for my 25+ years in the advertising industry!? In the past 25 years, I've worked with so many different kinds of people, from the highly conservative groups to the extremely liberal individuals. There has been a lot of water that's passed under this old bridge. But, in spite of the fact that I haven't heard from any of you guys in a couple decades, I have to say that I do still feel like part of the OFM family when I read DD. The proverbial "common thread" may be wearing thin, but it hasn't broken. 3 Jan 2000: Evan Eckhoff: Please send the DD to 5 Jan 2000: Frank K. Flinn (Sean): (Brother Flinn writes in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on January 1, 2000.) [Millennial visions have ranged from Armageddon to spiritual growth.] [Because I have this entire commentary reproduced
elsewhere, [Frank K. Flinn is adjunct professor of religious studies at Washington University. He has contributed to "The Coming Kingdom: Essays in American Millennialism and Eschatology" (1983), "The Return of the Millennium" (1984) and "Religious Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Controversies" (1999).] [Gael and I were blessed to be a year behind Frank in formation years. As you can see, he has an Einsteinian way with theology and philosophy that was unparalleled in our day. His greatest gift, I think, is to clarify and synthesize our arcane reality. JB.] 6 Jan 2000: Vince Zimmerman: Hello in the New Year. I am home sick today with whatever, and thought I'd try this e-mail stuff again. I don't do well with it yet. My letter to Anton went to someone in Boston who was nice enough to tell me it didn't get there. First, I want to make sure you know I have a new address. 512 Five Forks Dr. Springfield, Il. 62707. Ph: (217) 793-3567. We moved to a new house in July, '99. Still trying to sell the old one. I'd never built a house -- I know why Francis said you need to get a sword. It felt like a battle. 1999 brought other changes. Carol, whom I married in 1982 and who developed symptoms of Pick's Disease (dementia) around 1987, died in April. She had been in a nursing home since 1990 and the last years our only communication was through touch. She could still look relieved if I scratched her back. The Mooneys stopped by one wet night in the summer(?), I can't recall when. It was good to see them. I think I've been "reacting" to life's demands so much that I'd lost touch with the internal compass. Some people just help me reflect by being themselves. But perhaps the most humbling experience was being privileged to see Bro. Francis Gonser this last year. "Frannie" was the unproclaimed head of the house in Belem when I went to Brazil in 1964. He was officially the cook but his was the heart which kept it going. He came to St. John's, where I work, because he was developing dementia. As staff, we were so impressed when his mind was clear, and so saddened when he was sick. The hardest part was having to help move him to Indianapolis. Our doctor was convinced his treatment was right but Frannie was getting worse. (Reminded me of the joke: What's the difference between a doctor and God? God never thinks He's a doctor.) Plans for the new year include celebrating my marriage to Barb. We've been with each other 7 years now. Karen is 23 and in college, and David is 16 and keeping us up on what the latest young thinking is regarding anarchism, etc... He is a living education by just listening -- when he talks. Well, just wanted to keep in touch and thank you both for your work editing this stuff. Paz e Bem. 7 Jan 00 Paul G. Freudinger: I was surprised not to see my name on your list to drop from mailing Diaspora. To my knowledge I have never requested a mailing or contributed to its costs. I suppose a classmate clued you in to my interest in Diaspora. I was a class behind you at St. Joe's from 1954 till 1958 - the best four out of five years of my life. I have two computers but I am not on-line yet and I don't know when I will get there. I just want you to know I appreciate and look forward to reading Diaspora Digest. Enclosed please find a check to cover back mailing costs and I hope I can contribute further in the future. - Respectfully. (P.S. I struck you out a few times in the years at St. Joes.) [Your best contribution was your letter, Paul. Thanks for both. Does "Paul's Organ Service" on your check refer to musical instruments or body parts? -- We loved your relative, Fr. Pancratius Freudinger, the guardian during our years in philosophy at Rocky River Drive in Cleveland. He was such a jovial realist who exuded a fatherly sense of security. [By the way, my memory is that those blazing softball strike outs emanated from your left arm churning away very un-respectfully, and that I smacked those streaking missiles back at you, past your head, over the short centerfielder's head.] 11 Jan 2000 Jim & Mary Zangs: Happy Y2K2U. Meant to send this [handsome presidential portrait] sooner for your stamps fund. The e-mail version has been very good now and you can take us off the mail list - will print from computer to put in our notebook. Hope all is great and hope to see you before long. Love. [If you change your mind, let me know and I'll send you the hard copies, current & past for your notebook. Gbs] 13 Jan 2000: Dan Tanna: [To Gael Stahl.] First, a little diasporabilia; and then a special favor! Keep Larry and Barb Druffel on the Diaspora mailing list please. He and Barb moved to Chapin South Carolina to get away from Pittsburgh's ruthless winters and Carniege Mellon's pressure cooker. Dr. Druffel (one of those EE guys, you know) directed Carnegie Mellon's Software Research Institute for twelve years. He still is an authority in the software development field but traveling a lot less and relishing visits from his five kids and as many grand kids. The Druffel's new address: Larry and Barb Druffel; 304 Racket Rd.; Chapin, SC 29036 Also keep Ted and Joyce Middendorf on the mailing list. Although I haven't talked to Ted in years, he, Larry Druffel, Ron Harrington, Jim Hermeling, Billy Hrudicka, and I piled on the CB&Q at Quincy under Pete Amen's protective wing and stormed Joe's doors in September of 1954. (GK sobered us immediately declaring his conviction that Quincy was just a cemetery with lights.) We six made up 7.5% of the '54 freshman class. Do a fast rewind, Gail, to the Feast of St. Francis that year and you will see Ted playing 1st base for the freshman class in that classic annual freshie-sophmore softball game. I remember beating you guys! Phil Lord (ask Judy Mooney about Phil, her New Lennox classmate) hit a home run with two guys on base in the bottom of the 7th to give us the lead and eventual win/upset. You guys quaked and turned rubber-kneed as we freshies demonstrated a swirl of power and poise. (Who has copies of the Gleaner to verify?) Hey, where are those "tomes of times past," Gail? When Joe's closed, where did they put the library? Quincy College? CTU? It'd be fun to peruse those at the 2000 Conveniat. I'll discuss with Jack Bartz. And now I have a favor to ask you and Susan, if you will. The next time you two choose to kill time in some of those out-of-the way Tennessee antique shops, would you look for some campaign button(s) from the Franklin Haney's run for the governorship in the late 70's. Please? Franklin, as you may know being in your business, is our King Wenceslaus. From his perch that good political connections provide, he saw us scrounging to find an investor to keep our spanky new commercial office building on the shores of the Potomac (St. Agnes fountain?) in southwest D.C. alive. Our Canadian insurer and general partner fell victim to the Bush recession. Franklin threw his resources our way and a healthy pink complexion replaced asphyxiating blue. I would like to greet FH someday with one of those buttons on my lapel. If you could do that for me, I'd be mightily obliged to you and Susan. During our occasional treks into the Shenandoah/West Virginia hinterland. Sharon and I are slack-jawed with surprise at what turns up on those dusty, course, splinter-infested shelves in antique shops (barns). Some shops nearby have dedicated certain sections to political bric-a-brac. Don't know if you guys are into the same. Oh, and anything from Jim Sasser successful run that reclaimed Al's dad's senate seat for the Democrats in '76 would be fun. And if you find a "Brock Believes" button I'd drive to Peckerwood myself to get it. Don't know if FH would laugh at that one. Well, I guess he would now. Gail, you were in Tennessee during Haney's run, weren't you? I must close! But before I do.. I can't say enough good things about Ashley Shannon's book: "Irish Blessings: a Photographic Celebration." Tommy referenced it in the Diaspora last year, which I happened to be reading just before Christmas. It is just a beauty! Reading through Irish Blessings will make you upgrade your coffee table. (Can't rest parking a Rolls Royce in a lapsing barn?) He has to be proud. For all of us connected to ye ol' sod, but never have been there, quiet time with this book pleasures all the senses! And Ashley's book was my fist Amazon.com purchase. I will buy other works she authors, edits, publishes as she wraps-up her Notre Dame studies and begins a career in Irish academia. Get a copy, Herr Stahl! Pax et Love to you Guys! 13 Jan 2000: Gael Stahl: [To Dan Tanna.]Thanks for the great letter, Dan. And now that you jigger my memory, I do remember those guys and Phil Lord and that wake up call to reality when you beat us and beat us and beat us for years. We never got the athletics together very well in our class. [When I arrived in 1956, our class really went downhill, athletically speaking. JB.] All the good guys - the jocks - left too early. I'll try to find some Haney buttons for you.-- All blessings. Zeke, Gael, Gail, etc. 15 Jan 2000: Dan Dolesh: I'm not sure you have my new e-mail address: Ddolesh of aol.com. I was thinking about you (God only knows why) while I was sitting in my rec room and watching the fire. Like my mind has nothing better to do, right? I was wondering whether there was a new edition of DD. I checked to see if I had your address in my computer, could not find it, so I tried to look up your name on EXCITE and came up with the marvelous Diaspora Digest web page with pictures and all. How magnificent! You all did a truly wonderful job. I want to thank you and whoever (Brennan?) went to the time and trouble to put it all together. "Your reward will be great......" [I'll take credit for word smithing the argument to the president of QU for allowing us to be on line, but your venerable classmate, Jack Hardesty, deserves multiple blessings and gratitude for everything else. It really is wondrous. JB.] Can you get me an e-mail or snail mail address for Charlie Bloss? He called me about six months ago and I was supposed to get back to him. Then someone stole my briefcase, planner, address book etc from my car (I think while I was at Mass in downtown Cleveland - impious knaves!) and I lost his phone number etc. Charlie, if you read this you can call me at 440-349-1422 (my unlisted, secret home number) or mail me at Ddolesh of aol.com or 29575 Hidden Valley Dr., Orange Village OH 44022. Seeing the Novitiate picture on the web page made me think of another novitiate story. One day in mid-July someone came running in the building yelling, "Tomato fight, tomato fight." Alban was gone for the day. As I ran outside someone splatted me with a tomato. We whooped it up for about four or five hours throwing mostly over-ripe tomatoes at one another. Felt like something out of Lord of the Flies. The back of the building was covered, the walls and walkway of the courtyard were literally painted red with thousands of tomatoes. Everyone was dyed red; we had pinned the enemy down (or he pinned us down) and smeared tomatoes in their hair, squeezed them down their pants (those strange blue "high water waders" we wore under our habits), and just blasted them. Suddenly someone shouted, "Alban's back." Everyone scattered frantically. The entire back area was a disastrous mess. Everyone was in fear and trembling of the consequences. The next day at office and breakfast not a word. We all clustered around the bulletin board after lunch. There was a sign on the board from Alban (frugally written on the inside of a separated envelope spread out as a sheet of paper). This was the only mention ever made of the tomato fight. A rough paraphrase: "The last tomato fight of the year was held on August 20, 1968. [Had to be 1960 or 61. JB] Whoever participated, clean up the mess." That was it, we had escaped disaster! But the thrill was still there (and still is to this day 32 years later.) The glory of complete animal abandonment! That was one of the high points of the year. Then there was the time, shortly after we arrived in Novitiate, when the temperature was over a hundred degrees, that I got deathly ill from a sinus infection which I periodically would get. I had just received the wool habit and I am severely allergic to wool. My room was on the second floor and all heat would rise up and one felt like a hen roasting in the oven. I thought I was going to die. I asked for Douglas (Makowski, your class junior if I remember correctly) [Your memory is working now!] and when he came to my room I croaked out at him: "Doug, I'm going to die, I need help, really bad. Go get me help. Go talk to Alban" I expected at least a trip to the hospital with Alban kneeling at my bedside. Douglas returned about two hours later with a sheepish look on his face. "Well," I croaked out, "What did he say?" "He said this was best we could do" At that point Doug thrust forward his closed fist and opened up his hand. In the palm of his hand were two aspirins. I looked at him, stunned, and we both burst out laughing. Ah, Alban had a way of teaching the art of corporal mortification. 25 Jan 00 Paul Stubenbort (Josaphat-1952) says his eddress is: Stubenbort of juno.com. His request for information about the June 2000 DD reunion was forwarded to Jack Bartz. From a former friar used-car dealer 27 Jan 00 Frank Schwirtz of Elizabeth IL: I am one of the elite who has yet to contribute to Diaspora. So I take pen in hand to update. I was a member of the infamous novitiate class of 1969 and proud of it. After vacillating from 1969-1971 in and out of OLA and QC, I graduated and went to work for my father who was a Chev-Olds dealer in Elizabeth. I married Norma, a native Quincyian in 1972. We have two daughters. Stephanie, 26, who is currently in law school at St. Louis University and also has a three-year-old daughter, Jacqueline. Full life to say the least. Heather is 24 and married to an Army captain and is located at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Shawn, her husband, is also opposed to the School of Americas. My kind of guy. Norma is a teacher turned librarian who has been the stabilizing force in my rather varied life. Those who knew me in the seminary and those who know me now will probably attest that I am basically a questioning fellow whose theme song is: "What's it all about, Alfie?" After 13 years in the dealership, I decided I was not meant to be a car dealer. Basically, I was not my father, and as he frequently put it during our stormy tenure together: "Frank, you are just too damn honest for this business. Ah, yes, those Franciscan values. I left the dealership in 1984 to become Mr. Mom, went back to school at a Lutheran Seminary, but found out instead that my Catholic roots were not to be violated or compromised. Then I went back for my master's in pastoral ministry only to find after we received a new ultraconservative bishop that rural parishes are to be administered by ordained priests only. I have lived in Elizabeth all my life except when I was with the Franciscans and have no desire to move away. I then became a teacher's aide for special education grades K-8 for six years. During the past 11 summers I have been working at a retreat center 20 minutes from my home. It's called Christ in the Wilderness. Its director is a sister from the Sisters of St. Joseph of LaGrange. If any of you served at the motherhouse there or at Nazareth Academy, you would know her as Sister Kateri Mark. She is now known as Sister Lorraine - a truly phenomenal woman. Long story short she is now 64 and can no longer do all the things required to maintain CITW so she has taken me on full-time as her assistant retreat director. We have both been blessed by our partnership. CITW has three single dwellings, hermitages nestled in the hills for people to come and pray and have solitude. We offer directed or nondirected retreats. One of the key elements is that it is nondenominational and is advertised by word of mouth only. People from all over the United States have some here and are genuinely renewed and leave with a sense of greater value of life and their presence in it. I would like to bring out in the open forum of Diaspora two elements of which I truly struggled with while I was with the Franciscans. The first being the vow of poverty and the other being the vow of chastity. I bring these two elements up not as a criticism of the order or any given individual friars or administrators but rather as an open question that perhaps others have struggled with and resolved. I viewed the vow of poverty as a vow binding me to the poor and to work with and for the poor. In my limited times at OLA and T-town I was troubled as I felt I was actually living a life comparable to the one I left behind -- middle-class and comfortable. This was not what I perceived Francis and the Rule to be about. Secondly, the vow of chastity basically put women in a whole different world - to be viewed at best as suspicious and not to be trusted. I sincerely struggled as to how to develop deep, caring, and yes, loving relationships with women while in the seminary and novitiate. It was one of those taboo subjects that was rarely dialogued or given much credence except to watch your step and be guarded. We would often joke around about our relationship with women, but no serious attempt to cultivate a respect and value for the opposite sex. Just a few thoughts and perhaps a stimulation to provoke a response to my own questioning and resolutions to one of the most provocative and important times of my life. I am forever grateful for being a part of the Franciscans and the men who make it what it is. To Diaspora, I salute you for keeping us in touch with who we are. Blessings to all. PS: Note that my mailing address is changed to 233 W Main St, Elizabeth, IL 61028. Disregard the PO Box number. The check enclosed is for expenses. [Great letter, Frank. Your life story is just what Diaspora is all about. As for the discussion points, I seldom met a young friar who didn't broach the problem reconciling poverty and chastity in the context of our lives. While friars have so often blessedly associated themselves with the poor and disadvantaged, poverty is more about BEING poor, powerless, and dispossessed. From the beginning friars evangelized all Christians, rich and poor, Suleiman and lepers, in universities, rectories, wherever. [As for chastity, I believe recent history has shown there are several ways of coping with that quirk of history: one's left hand, right hand, women, marriage, men, old age, sublimation, nuttiness, or, even, more rarely, saintliness. If there is a natural law, chastity is an exception to it and abnormal. So expect the abnormal. - With that, I take my stand. - gbs] 31 Jan 00 Dick Mayer wrote just before the Super Bowl got underway and bet Gael a dinner for two couples that St. Louis would beat Nashville. After the game (in which Nashville came up a yard short from putting the Super Bowl in it's first ever overtime game), Dick wrote: Nice try. But we had it all the way. Son Matt called us Saturday from Atlanta. One of his friends moved to Atlanta last year to go to school. Turns out his father is a lobbyist for Anheuser- Busch and knows all the St. Louis politicians. He got Matt into everything except the game. His last two tickets went for $1500. Out of Matt's price range. Matt watched the game with Terrell Davis of the Broncos and had dinner with Rep. Gephardt. He just got back here tonight and will head back to school early in the AM. They drove thru Nashville on the way and reported that the Titans' stadium is really something to behold. [Pretty impressive company for young Mayer to keep. May I introduce him to Sen. Fred Thompson next Super Bowl? Y'all and Linda come soon for a country cooked meal. gbs] 2 Feb 00 Rod Farrell: Dear DD, a final note handed from a pink cloud by F.J. Smith to R.F: today is Smith's 34th wedding anniversary and champagne corks are popping in heaven and purgatory. The ground hog looked at us and scurried back down into his burrow. It has been decades of love, fun, kinds, cats, a god, and fascinating work with academics and churches. To my lovely wife and kids: "ad multos annos" for us all. To DD "valete atque etiam valete." Amen. Alleluia. [Rod, felicitations from all fringe friar families to your friend and his saintly wife. We never hear from old Joe any more. He's not pouting in silence, is he?] 4 Feb 2000 Jack Bartz: [Jack sent three long and well done articles; I
have abridged them here. If you want to see these articles in their entirety,
email Jack Bartz at "Catholic priests are dying of AIDS, often in silence." (By JUDY L. THOMAS - The Kansas City Star.) Hundreds of Roman Catholic priests across the United States have died ofAIDS related illnesses, and hundreds more are living with HIV. The actual number of AIDSdeaths is difficult to determine. But it appears priests are dying of AIDS at a rate at least four times that of the general U.S. population, according to estimates from medical experts and priests and an analysis of health statistics by The Kansas City Star. In Missouri and Kansas alone, at least 16 priests and two religious-order brothers have died of AIDS since early 1987. Most diocesesand religious orders now require applicants for the priesthood to take an HIV-antibody test before their ordination. For the nation's 60 million Catholics, served by 46,000 priests, the AIDS issue goesstraight to the heart of church doctrine -- a doctrine that teaches compassion and forgiveness but also considers homosexual relations a sin and opposes the modern practice of "safe sex." In a nationwide confidential survey of 3,000 priests by The Star, two-thirds of the morethan 800 responding lauded the church for being caring and compassionate to priests with AIDS. Often, the church covers medical costs, gives them a place to live and cares for them until they die. Most priests, however, said the church failed to offer an early and effective sexualeducation that might have prevented infection in the first place. Two-thirds said sexuality either was not addressed at all or was not discussed adequately in the seminary. Three of four said the church needed to offer more education about sexual issues. Many priests and behavioral experts argue that the church's adherence to 12th-centurydoctrine about the virtues of celibacy and its teachings on homosexuality have contributed to the spread of AIDS within the clergy. Moreover, by treating homosexual acts as an abomination andthe breaking of celibacy vows as shameful, the church has scared priests into silence, some say. "I think this speaks to a failure on the part of the church," said Auxiliary Bishop ThomasGumbleton of the Archdiocese of Detroit. "Gay priests and heterosexual priests didn't know how to handle their sexuality, their sexual drive. And so they would handle it in ways that were not healthy. "How to be celibate and to be gay at the same time, and how to be celibate andheterosexual at the same time, that's what we were never really taught how to do. And that was a major failing... Much as we would regret it, it shows that human nature is human nature," BishopRaymond J. Boland of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph said. "And all of us are heirs to all of the misfortunes that can be foisted upon the human race... Faith reminds us that the afflictedare our brothers and sisters, men and women in God's image. They deserve our care, respect and support." Boland says. Through the years, the issue of AIDS deaths among priests has been so sensitive thatmany of those who later died kept their illnesses a secret. Some death certificates listed AIDS-related conditions such as pneumocystis pneumonia but never mentioned the disease itself. Other certificates were falsified. In a survey 801 priests responded to The Star's survey on AIDS and the priesthood. Nearly 60 percent said they personally knew at least one priest who had died of AIDS. And one in three said they knew priests who were living with HIV or AIDS. The Rev. Tom Casey, an Augustinian priest from the Boston area, cared for a priest whodied of AIDS in 1991. Casey said the church bears some of the blame for his death. "They have created a tremendous amount of homophobia," Casey said. "They'reschizophrenic in the sense that they're wonderful when it comes to caring for people, but on the other hand, most churches don't generally have a healthy understanding of sexuality." The Catholic Church clearly is not alone. Clergy in other denominations also struggle withsexuality and have died of AIDS. But the Catholic Church's condemnation of homosexual acts, its requirement that priests be male and its unique demand of celibacy make the issue all the more vexing for its followers. Several church leaders respond that the church is dealing with the issue forthrightly. Anycriticism, they say, must be tempered by the realization that many priests wish to keep their medical condition private, as do many AIDS sufferers outside the church. When priests do tell their superiors, the cases generally are handled quietly, either at thepriests' requests or because church officials are reluctant to discuss them. In 1995, Bishop Emerson J. Moore left the Archdiocese of New York and went toMinnesota, where he died in a hospice of an AIDS-related illness. His death certificate attributed his death to "unknown natural causes" and listed his occupation as "laborer" in the manufacturing industry. After a Minnesota AIDS activist filed a complaint, officials changed the cause of death to"HIV related illness." The occupation, however, has not been corrected. Farley Cleghorn, an epidemiologist with the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore,said it was common practice with early cases not to disclose AIDS as a cause of death. "The first priest that I saw with AIDS -- this was back in 1982 -- we did not put AIDS onthe death certificate, because they wanted us not to," Cleghorn said. Cleghorn said he has treated about 20 priests and religious-order brothers with AIDS, all of whom had kept it a secret. "The church and religious orders need to acknowledge that there is a problem -- thatpriests have sex and they are susceptible to all sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS," Cleghorn said. In the early 1990s, experts who counseled and treated priests with AIDS estimated thatabout 200 in the United States either had died of AIDS or had contracted the disease. Now, those who work with infected priests say the numbers are higher. And many priests and medical experts now agree that at least 300 priests have died. Thattranslates into an annualized AIDS-related death rate of about 4 per 10,000 -- four times that of the general population's rate. Other estimates say that 1,000 priests have died from AIDS ---nearly 11 times the rate of the general population. Another researcher who has extensively studied the issue of AIDS within the church is theRev. Thomas Crangle, a Franciscan priest in the Capuchin order in Passaic, N.J. In 1990, Crangle conducted a mail survey of hundreds of priests selected at random. Crangle said that of the 500 surveys he sent, 398 were returned. About 45 percent of those responding volunteered that they were gay, and 92 -- nearly one-fourth -- said they had AIDS. "I was surprised," Crangle said. "Ifelt there was a problem, but I didn't think it was of that magnitude." Many Catholics say it is irrelevant how the priests contracted AIDS. Some caution that itwould be wrong to assume that all priests with HIV became infected by engaging in homosexual activity. "I would never ask a priest how he got it, just like nobody asked me two years ago how Igot cancer of the colon," Bishop Boland said. "But I would provide for him. I would not write him off and say, 'Because you've got AIDS and because there are doubts about how one can acquire it, therefore you're not a good priest.' " As long ago as the early 1980s, the Rev. John Keenan discovered that Catholic priestswere contracting AIDS at an alarming rate. He believes most priests with AIDS contracted thedisease through same-sex relations. He said he treated one priest who had infected eight other priests. One of the first priests with AIDS to attract national attention was the Rev. Michael R.Peterson. Peterson was a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington and founder of St. Luke Institute, a psychiatric hospital in Maryland for Catholic priests and religious-order men and women. He died in 1987 at age 44. The month before Peterson died, he and Washington's Archbishop James Hickey sent aletter to the priests of his diocese and to every Catholic bishop and religious superior in the country. "I hope that in my own struggle with this disease, in finally acknowledging that I have this lethal syndrome, there might come some measure of compassion, understanding and healing for me and for others with it -- especially those who face this disease alone and in fear," Peterson wrote. Hickey -- now a cardinal -- added, "Father Peterson's illness reminds us in a personal wayof the terrible human tragedy of AIDS in our midst. His suffering challenges us to reach out with renewed conviction and compassion to those with AIDS and their families and friends." "We had his funeral in the cathedral, and the archbishop talked about it," Boland recalled."You talk about a teachable moment. First of all there was a shock, but when that wore off, they said, 'Gee, this maybe is the model of how we should deal with people in this situation. Even a priest.' " In 1967, the U.S. Catholic bishops voted to conduct an extensive study of the life andministry of the American priest. The U.S. Catholic Conference published the findings in a 1972 book called The Catholic Priest in the United States: Psychological Investigations. Most significant among the findings was that a large proportion of priests werepsychologically underdeveloped and had failed to achieve a healthy sexual identity. In 1983, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Priestly Life andMinistry followed up with a 59-page booklet called "Human Sexuality and the Ordained Priesthood." The booklet's purpose was to provide "a structured, objective basis for priests andbishops to reflect personally and talk about some important realities -- realities which otherwise might not get looked at or dealt with helpfully." Topics included celibacy, loneliness and relationships. Three pages dealt with homosexuality. "Seminary taught spirituality, liturgy and Latin -- sexuality was taboo." (By JUDY L. THOMAS - The Kansas City Star.) The young men came from Kansas, Missouri, Colorado and Texas. Some came from wealthy and prominent families, others from families that were practically penniless. Many were "cradle Catholics"; others converts. But all had something in common -- a calling to serve God. They were united as novices at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Mo., a 150-year-old Jesuit institution tucked away in the rolling countryside northwest of St. Louis. At the peak of the sexual revolution, in the Age of Aquarius and during the height of theVietnam War, the 26 novices in the classes of 1967 and 1968 spent their days in prayer and meditation, preparing to become priests. At St. Stanislaus and other seminaries, there were rules:"Non quam duo, semper tres." Not in twos, always threes. And the young men were told toavoid "particular friendships." [ala Thomas a Kempis. And who can forget "custodia oculorum?" JB] Beyond that, when it came to sex, there was often only silence. Just over two decades later, only seven of the 26 in the classes of '67 and '68 had beenordained. Three of those seven had died of AIDS. Church leaders say today they're doing a better job of educating prospective priests aboutsexuality. "We go to a number of seminaries, and sexuality is being treated in a much more honest and direct way," said the Rev. Stephen Rossetti, president of St. Luke Institute, a residential treatment program for priests in Silver Spring, Md. "We talk about sexuality, we try to educate people toward how to be a healthy person, have a positive understanding of their own sexuality and yet also be a celibate." [The article continues with some touching personal stories of priests who contracted AIDS. JB.] In 1988, at the first national gathering to address HIV and AIDS in the priesthood, thespectacle shocked conference participants: Three priests with AIDS entered the auditorium wearing bags on their heads. "They were deathly afraid," said the Rev. Rodney DeMartini, executive director of theNational Catholic AIDS Network, a group that focuses on AIDS education. "Not only of the virus living in their bodies. They were deathly afraid of being recognized, deathly afraid of any consequence to them, to their community, to their diocese, because they were living with HIV and AIDS." Unfortunately, DeMartini said, little has changed in the last 12 years. "There are stillpeople today, they may not wear bags over their heads, but they are not wanting to know their own (HIV) status, or, if they do, they are not wanting to say anything to anybody until they have to," he said. "We still have a lot of work to do." The Roman Catholic Church has no policy on dealing with priests who have HIV orAIDS. Some dioceses and religious orders have developed their own guidelines, DeMartini said, but many have not. At their fall convention in November, U.S. bishops addressed everything from a decline inprayerful silence before Mass to church architecture. They did not, however, discuss sexuality... Health officials say priests who have used intravenous drugs or have been sexually activeneed to be tested for HIV. Most dioceses and orders now require priest applicants to undergo HIV antibody tests, according to the National Catholic AIDS Network and church officials. Proponents say testing is a safeguard against escalating medical costs and a means ofensuring that the priests can perform their duties. Others, however, fear that it's a way to exclude gays from the priesthood. The Rev. Thomas Crangle, a Franciscan priest in the Capuchin order in Passaic, N.J.,knows what a positive AIDS test can do to a seminarian. When he was vocation director for hisprovince, Crangle said, a man applied for his order, which didn't require testing, and another order that had mandatory testing. "He came out positive," Crangle said. "He came to me and he said, 'That just blows all mydreams.' I said, 'It doesn't blow your dreams. You had a vocation before this, and this does not make you who you are.' " Crangle said that although his order was open to accepting the man,he chose not to become a priest. Homosexuality has been a divisive issue for years. Even among priests, there is little room for compromise. The Rev. Dan McCarthy, for example, marches in New York City's Gay Pride Paradedressed in his clerical clothing. "I am quite proud to identify myself as a gay man," the priest andpsychotherapist said. The Rev. Charles Fiore, however, thinks openly gay priests should leave the priesthood. "I am damned mad at those people who accept the power and the glory and the honor of the priesthood and then foul the nest," the Wisconsin priest said. "They [seminarians] were afraid they'd get thrown out if they brought up somethingsexual, or else they said there was nobody they could talk with," said James Gill, a senior consultant at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn. For Gill, a Jesuit priest and psychiatrist, that raised a question. "Who trains, who educatesthe faculty members, the spiritual directors, the teachers, to be able to deal with the sexuality of the young people who come under their care?" The answer, he discovered: Nobody. The Rev. Jon Fuller, a Boston priest and physician who specializes in AIDS, doesn'tbelieve the hundreds of priests' deaths from AIDS-related illnesses were in vain. "Certainly it hasmade us look at the issue of homosexuality more closely," Fuller said. "The deaths also show the need for more open and honest discussion about sexual issueswithin the church," he said. [Post Script: In our day, we had Francis Leo Madsen, Agatho Windolph, Sylvano Pera, Medard Buvala and Nick Meyer. In my experience - yes, folks, I had sexual thoughts - these men were open to discussion about sexual issues and did not flinch at talking about them. I am exceedingly grateful for their enlightening thoughts on sexuality. I don't think I could have received a better sexual education anywhere. I remember in particular that Nick had us read James Baldwin's books so that we could have a better understanding of homosexuality. Bless them all. JB.] 4 Feb 00 Dick Mayer: sent from the Post-Dispatch Website the photo of Frank Flinn and his wife embracing at the first of the year covered most of the top of a page said Mayer. The caption read: "Alice Bloch and Frank K. Flinn wouldn't trade in their millennial milestone. They ushered in the new era with friends dancing at sunrise on Art Hill in Forest Park. "It was a joyous thing to do," said Bloch. The 54-year-old director of dance at Lindenwood University was still basking in the glow of the moment after a Saturday afternoon nap. She has been married to Flinn, 60, a professor of religious studies at Washington University, for two years. It wasn't unusual for them to be in the park. They walk there most mornings. But, as they watched the global celebration on television Friday, they were moved to go to the Gateway Arch that night to usher out the final moon of the last millennium. That inspired them to welcome the new millennium's first sunrise. Through it all, they felt a sense of connection. "To me, it was a hopeful thing," she said. 8 Feb 2000: Dan Tanna: (To Gael Stahl). Thanks for the political pins search update! Always good to get an email from ye! But no pressure to hurry with those buttons now! Don't make it a butt-and-jamb, grunt-and-push all consuming task like striving to live in sanctifying grace is. Give it the tranquility of a soft middle C on the keyboard with an occasional major cord thrown in for variety. Keep it pianissimo and replete with half notes and wholes only. Just something on the side to spice a spontaneous walks through those dusty brik-a-brak shops that increasingly appeal to us card carrying ARP'ers. Sharon and I are into a geezer routine - I-HOP for breakfast on Saturday mornings, walking the dogs, an occasional movie, reading Scripture, stoking the fireplace on cold evenings, keeping up with the primaries, and stuff. . We love our current rut! Gael, you won't believe it until you see him! The new buyer of the townhouse next to ours looks just like Ferdie (Jerry) Etzkorn. Andrew (Cannon) moved in two month ago. He and his Gaelic girlfriend, NoAmy, (Gaelic she says for Naomi) came over for Thanksgiving. Then it started to churn in my mind as to who he looked like. The lights blazed to life this weekend! While he and I were clearing snow from the sidewalks last Saturday (after we go back from I-HOP, of course) it hit me - he's Jerry Etzkorn fresh from Louvaine University. As you recall, Ferdie's first post Louvaine assignment was OLA; you and Jack were 2nd year guys, our class's caravan from T-Town had just arrived. Jerry, if you can hear me, you and Linda must stop in when you visit your Nation's Capital again and see your preserved youthful image. Andrew, by the way, is one helluva nice neighbor. His advanced degree in the computer sciences takes him to Jersey (Joisey as they say there) during the work week. If I catch him squinting with one eye into his cupped hands and asking: "Who's got the truth?" the revelation will have been completed! (Jerry's cupped hand response to our questions drove Chuck Gunti mad in epistemology class. We all wanted that Socratic logic layout. Jerry wouldn't hear of keeping it simple. He gave new meaning to shoulder shrugging). Love you, Jerry! Gael, got to get to work! Thanks again to you and Susan for leisurely pursuing and perusing for my Haney, Sasser, Brock buttons. Make it a pleasure hunt! Marinass's recent book on Al Gore put me in touch with Brock. "Brock Believes" slogan gets a lot of ink - a least in the Post's "surps" of his book. Brock Candies? Chattanooga? He, as you know, occupied the seat for one term between Al senior and Sasser. Much more later. I promise, Jack, I am working on a DKT [Dan's initials, I presume. JB] update for the Diaspora! Thanks again to both for such a gift!! 12 Feb 00 Dick Korn: Things are fine here with Madeleine and me and our children and grandchildren. Madeleine and I leave a week from tomorrow for San Pedro Sula, Honduras and San Salvador, El Salvador. I will be translating as Madeleine and I visit maquilas in these places toward publication of a parish discussion/study manual that she has been commissioned to write around labor, economic justice, environmental and other NAFTA-related issues. Vitus died recently, if that's news to Diaspora readers. Tom Gardner passed on that news, together with a list of friaries in Central America where I may get to visit old friar friends. I've been enjoying email exchanges with Paul Zoderer in Itaituba since his server is up; Madeleine and I were there with the kids a couple of summers ago and talk about some kind of missionary work/writing in Itaituba/Santarem when we retire, which will probably be in about a zillion years since we're still blessed with good health and enthusiasm for our work at the Interfaith Center for Peace here. I continue to do considerable translating for the Community Refugee and Immigration Service and represent the Peace Center at the Ohio Council of Churches, Worldwide Humanitarian Aid and the Greater Columbus Community Shares. Your readers are welcome to come visit when their itinerary includes central Ohio. 12 Feb 00 John Miller: Yes, I did write a bit about Dennis [Newman] and Cowboy [Dan Mazar] earlier, and I think told you of Cowboy being "bought out" at the steel mill. When I talked to Cowboy in early February, he said he was going to restaurants and taking the sugar packets "just like the other old geezers." I suggested he get a gym bag, large purse, or case for the rolls, crackers and whatever else he could take. Of course, I'm two years older than he, so I really can't make fun of him. He seems happy and claims he might look for a job as a bartender in a shot and a beer place. [Wouldn't his ministry in that role be invaluable? I can picture him asking patrons: Now, when is it that the iceman cometh? Godot? The Messiah? - gbs] Such is life with big company takeovers. They use you at the cheapest price possible, and then throw you away when you get in your 50's when you're making their top salary. It's happened to several friends and acquaintances, and it must be a sobering experience. We often take our jobs so seriously and lose our identity there, only to have it snatched away and told you are "dispensable." Some people break when that happens, and some blossom and take another step. Cowboy will blossom. 15 Feb 2000: Dan Mazar (Cowboy): My classmate George Vaughan has a computer that has crashed. Ergo, he has no e-mail addresses, including the Diaspora addresses. His e-mail address is: devgev of sol.racsa.co.cr. He and his wife Dee live in Costa Rica and are hoping to be at Mayslake in June. Would you email him to get him current? [See parenthetical note below. JB.] I retired from the Mill (early retirement package). Have not looked for anything yet, although a return to the friars is not out of the question. Don't take the odds on that happening. Hope all is well in peckerwood heaven. My best to Susan and whomever shows up at Green Acres. Pax et Bonum. [George, I have a pretty long note about you in my listing of fringe friars, how you and Dee are volunteers with the Christian Foundation for Children in Costa Rica and that Jim Fisher showed you our web page. So I'm not sure what Jack and I can do for you. Do you have any of the newsletters to find the Web page again? (http://www.quincy.edu/~hardeja/digest). The recent newsletters are published there, I think. If not, Jack or I can forward them to you. (If you can't get to the home page, let me know and I will forward as many back issues as I have. JB.) The Mayslake reunion at St. Paschal's is on the weekend of June 10. Hope you can make it. [Now that contact is reestablished, let us know what we can do. [It says in my notes that you were at St. Joe's 1959-62. Jack and I went to novitiate in '59, so we missed each other by four months. [I'd love to see you some time. GS.] 17 Feb 00 James M. Enright (1964) of Elgin sent a monetary contribution, no letter. 18 Feb 00 Sr. Marilyn Freking: Gael & Susan, Just want you to know Rosie Walls (a Corpus Christi parishioner and good friend of Mooney and Stahl in 1967-69) is in intensive care. She is stable but her kidneys are not functioning well and heart too weak for dialysis. Don't have Mike Mooney's address. [I mailed Chris Reuter, CC pastor and a classmate, to tell Marilyn that Mike was on the road in his RV, probably in Arizona or California at the moment, but I'd let him know through some mutual friends in Santa Rosa, Bill McGee, Alice Waco, and Sky Chaney. Chris wrote back the following week, for which, thanks. gbs] 19 Feb 00 Marilyn Freking called: Rosie Walls died. She said the daughters, Cynthia and Lori, and rest of family could be reached at 6801 Ridgeland Ave, Chicago IL 60640. Medard's OK! 20 Feb 00: Newsflash: Minor Matters reported in Jan/Feb 2000 issue that a man attacked Medard Buvala and robbed him of $20. Real Franciscans don't carry more than that, I guess. The guy came to the door and asked Med to give him a lift. Old hands like Medard know better than to risk kid(codger)napping. He refused, took his lumps, and survived in fine fettle. The 48-year-old man bearing Perfect Joy was arrested walking down the street shortly afterwards. Medard said he wasn't put-off from helping those in need: "This is a very rare occurrence," he said. 26 Feb 00 JB to GBS: Zeke, I am not in any hurry whatsoever (to finish DD30 this weekend). It's your call, your baby, our pleasure. It's more important to enjoy your sunny days. Life is short. A 50-year-old friend of ours died this morning of leukemia. A week hardly passes when I don't run into a stirring story at the hospital. A few friends are encouraging me to write the stories. They are heart singers to be sure. So perhaps I will. I know a place where I can get my stories published. Have you ever heard of the 2D-3P publishing company out of P, TN? That's Peckerwood Publishing where Fallen Friars and Righteous Ritualists can have their Efforts Edited - For Free. Wheee. 26 Feb 00 John Miller wrote: I am presently reading an interesting book, similar to Kathleen Norris' Amazing Grace. The title is: The Ironic Christian's Companion by Patrick Henry. At first, only the title attracted me, but Henry's observations of his journey and God's workings are interesting. Sandy also had me read a sci-fi: WIZARD'S FIRST RULE by Terry Goodkind. It was a fun adventure along the lines of Tolkien and Star Wars, and has some interesting bits of wisdom. Apparently there are four more books that continue this. 26 Feb 00 Gael to John Miller: Jack has bestowed on me a fine future for this day. It was a lovely early spring day y'day and today has sunshine. This morning, I was reading Matthew (early chapters) and Merton's journals written at St.Bonaventure's University just before he went to Gethsemani. It was fun being reminded how Merton was "this close" to joining our New York OFM province. He did the better thing. That's what vocation must be all about. Knowing, in hindsight, you did the right thing, God's will, fulfilled your inner nature, etc. Writing you is fun but I really must get to work or lapse into total laziness. Blame it on Matthew and the way the heavens opened up and the voice said I'm well pleased with the newly baptized. - I'd forgotten that Matthew has Jesus immediately plucking up Simon and Andrew, James and John, and going to preach the sermon on the mount. Luke is so much more leisurely about it. [He gets in a couple of miracles first.] Bye and bonum, Gael 8 Mar 2000: Pat Feehan: Greetings from Nebraska. The mention of the drop list has propelled me into the action I kept "planning" for these last many months. I greatly enjoy DD & read it almost cover to cover though in many cases I recognize only the names or associated stories. Yet many are familiar. I attended Mayslake for high school 66-69 and then on to OLA in Quincy & then to novitiate in St. Paul at Sacred Heart. Bob Monaghan was novice master with Chuck Gunti as assistant. Tom Stellwag was my fellow novice and Clem Leahy & Charlie Strack were also in the friary. After a year at CTU & a summer in Dittmer with Bert Miller & Claude Buchanan I declined to renew my simple promises and left the order though I did stay another 2 years in Dittmer working with Claude & Bert. I then returned to Columbus & Schuyler Nebraska area. Sixteen months ago I married for the first time and my wife & I are currently working on an adoption. My wife Kelly is a North Dakota girl, growing up about 60 miles from the Canadian border. She works for the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension Service & I am engaged in retailing, an old family habit, renting tuxedos ( a man of the cloth?) and doing awards and engraving in a companion business. Since the friars are no longer in Columbus I particularly appreciate the chance to regularly catch up with friars past & present through DD though I do maintain contact with varying degrees of regularity with Bert Miller, John Eaton & especially Paul Gallagher. Please keep me on the US Postal Service Mailing list if you would. My mailing address is Patrick Feehan 2103 25th St. Columbus, NE 68601-2680. I am long overdue to send a contribution to help keep things going. This is a great ministry it seems to me. It helps me stay & feel connected. I'm glad you all found me. More in the future. Until then--Pax et Bonum. [The following
information was in the hard copy of the DD29] HOTELS & MOTELS IN THE MAYSLAKE AREA FOR CONVENIAT 2000 I didn't have space for this listing in DD29. Jack Bartz, who has
spearheaded the Diaspora conveniat on the weekend of June 10, provides this
information and can be reached at: Jack & Cheryl Bartz, 708/655-1183,
(Dominic-1963) 237 Middaugh Road, Clarendon Hills, IL 60514-1018 Jack highly recommends that you check out DD28 for phone numbers of your classmates and friends and contact each other beforehand. You'll be glad you did. The Brennans and Stahls stayed at the Clubhouse Inn in 1991 when our class celebrated its 25th ordination anniversary. We loved it. - gbs (Municipalities: Clarendon Hills, Downers Grove, Elmhurst, Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Oakbrook Terrace, Westmont, Willowbrook; Area Code: 630) AERIE HOTELS, 17 W 635 Butterfield Road,
Oakbrook Terrace, 916-1335 |