Remember Fitz
LETTER FROM FITZ - 2009
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"I'm completely in favor of the separation of church and state. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough
on their own, so both of them together is certain death."
(George Carlin, 1937 - 2008)
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Saturday, December 12, 2009
Dear Friends & Fellow Seekers:
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Winter has arrived with a vengeance, both here in San Francisco and across the country. It's cold and wet outside, but, unlike our homeless brothers and sisters, I'm inside and warm. The first Met Opera radio broadcast of the season is on. It's Puccini's IL TRITTICO, some of my favorite music in the world! So I'm as happy as that proverbial "pig in shit".
Just before Labor Day I retired. I finished my "working" career with eleven wonderful years at the St. Anthony Foundation, joining some rather marvelous colleagues in serving the needs of the poorest of the poor and trying to create "a world where all people flourish". At the retirement party, the priest who used to run St. Anthony's (and is the new Provincial Superior of the west coast Franciscans) said that "Even though Fitz was trained by Holy Cross and Notre Dame, we all know that he has a Franciscan heart!" I am learning to adjust to a more relaxed way of living, and, to be honest, absolutely loving the freedom and spontaneity that come with it. (It is so nice to stay up really late and then not even bother setting the alarm clock!)
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2009 began, for me and so many others, with the excitement of a new President being sworn in. My favorite moment from those heady days was the Inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial. So many great performances in spite of the freezing cold! I was so happy that they honored the memory of Marian Anderson's historic recital on that same spot. One of my heroes got to conclude the event. Pete
Seeger, at age 89, (who has been blacklisted, defamed, vilified and jailed repeatedly for his championing of human rights) joined Bruce Springsteen to lead the crowd in Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land". My heart soared! (At his 90th birthday party a few months later at Madison Square Garden, "the boss" joined the old master on stage again and finished his tribute by shouting "Pete, you outlived the bastards!")
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What a year it's been! A reality check on the limits of even the smartest and most idealistic leaders' ability to effect change.
(I keep remembering Angelo Roncalli's first year as Pope John XXIII, when he complained to an old friend that "Sono nel sacco qui!" ("I'm in a bag here!") Whether you're a new pope or a new president, you quickly discover that the forces who really control our world - the Wall Street bankers, Insurance Corporations and all those components of the "military industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell address - not to mention all sorts of narrow, crusty fundamentalists in ecclesiastical positions of power - don't yield easily to even the most desirable change. (Hence the nasty George Carlin quote at the start of this letter.)
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Too many eloquent voices were silenced by death this year. When Walter Cronkite left us the whole nation experienced a "death in the family". In September Mary Travers, who, along with Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey, created so much of the music of my generation's collective lives, finally yielded to her struggle with Leukemia. In their Time Magazine eulogy, Peter and Paul wrote this: "The world Mary touched has poured out its love and sadness at her passing -as do we, for our remarkable, beloved friend and companion in song."
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And, of course, there was Teddy. Like so many of us, a flawed and vulnerable man, whose life story says a lot about the miracle of recovery and redemption. Years ago, when he was in Chicago, campaigning for Ab Mikva's congressional election, I had the privilege of a "backstage chat" with him. (I was doing the grace prayer at a fundraising dinner at The Palmer House. We were waiting to take our places at the head table.) He told me of being a child on his father's boat at Hyannisport, sailing with their guest, Fr. John Cavanaugh, the future President of Notre Dame. He said that the priest told him, "Teddy, don't ever forget that you have had the good fortune to be born into the two greatest institutions in the world - the Roman Catholic Church and the Democratic Party!" (Both those institutions have tested my devotion and even my membership in recent years. I might add a few other institutions to Father Cavanaugh's list, like Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and Pax Christi.)
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On the Friday night before Thanksgiving, I went up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower to see the festive lights come on at The Embarcadero Center buildings. (The semi-official beginning of San Francisco's holiday season.) While I was sitting there waiting, a young couple joined me. I told them about the lights and they seemed delighted. They walked a few steps away and he dropped to his knee, held up a ring and proposed. As they were hugging and kissing, friends of theirs, who'd been hiding in the bushes, rushed forward with cameras, flowers and champagne. And then all those brilliant lights came on. Sigh! Ifelt privileged to be there. It definitely was the beginning of my holiday season. (You know: that light that still shines in the darkness, those lamps that simply refuse to extinguish, etc.) Ihope your holiday season is full of similar, encouraging moments. I send you courage, hope and love!
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-Fitz