04.11.2021
Dear Fred,
I am attaching something by Ravasi where he mentions Lonergan as one of his great teachers...
how are you and Sue? well, I hope.
I was in Jerusalem recently, and remembered you and Sue with Vernet!
wishes and prayers,
Ivo
06.11.2021
Dear Ivo,
It is so good to hear from you! It's been a while. We hope you've missed catching COVID 19. So far we've had good luck, with the help of Pfizer!
Thanks for sending the Ravasi piece. He certainly does sound like he operates in the vein of Lonergan. I very much appreciate his understanding of the Jesus of the Gospels, critically and as good news! His closing salvo--especially the Szymborska quote--certainly rings true for Sue and me.
After undergoing the crisis of chronic heart failure and chronic obstruction of the pulmonary system, I am back teaching for my 50th year, relieved to be doing so live instead of on ZOOM. What a difference that makes! Sue is pretty much the same, with the undiagnosable tinnitus in her ears running on down through her torso, together will loss of much memory of the past, so that when she hears of something familiar it rings a bell, and she sort of remembers when I remind her. The loss of the ability to concentrate for long, has made reading longer articles or books pretty much out of the question, but day-to-day, it's pretty normal. So keep us in your prayers, please.
Your mention of Fr Vernet brings back happy memories of being with you in Jerusalem. I cannot help recalling with a chuckle his answer to the question whether he's learned Arabic: "Shweh, Sweh." And I often think of the last line of his prayer to St Joseph: "Help us to be silent."
When I talk to my old Roman classmates, and people I was in the seminary with in California, there is a lot of consternation about how so many of the younger priests and seminarians pretty much reject Vatican II, and have returned to the old "circle the wagons" approach to the world, and have returned to the notion of the Holy Eucharist as a transaction between Jesus and the individual, with no sense Thomas Aquinas's teaching that the "res of this sacrament is the unitas mystici corporis, along with Jesus crucified, risen, exalted as the Head of the entire human race. Have you encountered this problem yet? Jeremy Blackwood, who teaches in the Milwaukee seminary, has said that both old and young seminarians, are mainly comfortable with Neoscholastic philosophy/theology and the Roman Catechism. I remember Abp. Diarmuid McCollough saying after the vote in Ireland to embrace same-sex marriage, that "the Irish are the most catechized and least evangelized people in the world!" Many who have to do with religious education in the States, however, say to the ones they are training, "Don't teach catechism, teach Jesus!"
Love,
Fred & Sue
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dear Fred,
good to hear from you. it seems you have been through a rough period, healthwise. a prayer for you and Sue.
yes, the problem that you mention regarding seminarians and young religious is very much present - more in Europe and N. America, probably, and in some parts of S. America. though I must not forget that also in the East... there is a very strong anti-pope francis trend..
i love the quote from Aquinas! thanks!
we have our noses to the grind, with the task of revising our Ratio fundamentalis ... but one day at a time.
once again, wishes to Sue and prayers for you both and your family.
and yes, I am well, thank God. we've been to Guatemala, Colombia, Kenya and Israel recently, and, apart from the increased complication and complexity of travel, I am well.
I pass by St Pauls inside the Walls now and then and think of Sue and you... they never did get back to me about the memorial service.
Ivo (09.11.2021)
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