My wife is right, as always. As I switch between conservative and liberal media outlets, my political voyeurism becomes almost an obsession; at least she called it that. This morning I woke up with the impression that both sides are working frantically hard to shoe horn whatever facts they need into arguments that further their cause. With so much social media, new facts emerge almost by the hour. It is dizzying and I am becoming extremely superficial and reactive in my response as I try to take this media overload in.

I suspect that is the case for many of us poor American humans. It is hard to see and feel the truth when the volume of ideology and insanity from both sides is at “11”. Charles Ives was a prophet when he composed the Unanswered Question at the beginning of the 20th century. Ives posed in this piece that if our deepest existential questions are ignored in our society all our answers seem like chattering meaningless noise.

So, I was so happy to read an article by a dear friend of mine, Professor Giorgio Vittadini, about another dear friend of mine Lorenzo Albacete. There will be a lecture on Msgr. Albacete’s life and work on October 22nd, 6pm at the Sheen Center in the Village in NYC. The lecture will be a reflection a recently published book by Alabacete “Reality and Reason.”

http://www.crossroadsculturalcenter.org/events/2016/10/22/the-inaugural-albacete-lecture-on-faith-and-culture-culture.html

I knew Lorenzo very well. He was a character who could make you laugh and teach you about God all at once. He was kind of an American Fool for Christ. He was always present to help me through an emotional crisis, no matter how ridiculous, and became close friends with my wife and children, helping us in our weakness and fragility to navigate the rough waters of family life. He was a friend.

What gave him so much certainty and hope? He never disguised his own weakness and fragility. It was simply his deep belief in the love and mercy of the Person of Christ, and in the Church, though wounded, he loved so much. This is why he could face my existential uncertainty, my crisis, and my instability with such tenderness, strength and certainty all at once. He never moralized. Instead, he knew I was in need of a starting point that I could lean on, depend on with certainty and with which I could face my demons and the problems and difficulties of life for my family.

From this fullness of the beauty of the truth of Jesus, and within the difficulties of his own life, came the honesty, courage and motive to dialogue with all and to delve deeply into the many questions “modernity” posed towards faith. As Prof. Vittadini mentions in his article,

”There is an episode in the book that reveals this. Called in as an expert on “Church things” and particularly on the pontificate of John Paul II, he began to collaborate with American newspapers and television stations. One day an editor of the New York Times said to him: “We have many friends who are priests and who agree with us on almost everything. The result is that what they have to say is not very interesting. On the other hand, those who do not agree with us do not want to be our friends. You are here because you do not agree with us on many things, but it is obvious that you like us and you consider us your friends.”

This was a welcome surprise for me to read this morning, and a buffer to the noise.

http://www.tracesonline.org/2016/10/lorenzo-the-magnificent/