My Weekend with Iggy and "the Fonz"

This past weekend saw the observance of two great saints of the Roman Church.

July 31st is the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the "Jesuits." The town near Cincinnati where I grew up was the location of the novitiate (house of formation) for their Chicago Province, until it closed down in the late 1960s. They still maintain a retreat center there. The rest of the property is now a retirement community, but the overall piece of real estate is still as bucolic as ever.

When I first moved to DC in 1980, I joined the Jesuit parish in Georgetown, near the University of the same name -- not because the Washington Post called them "Washington's glamour parish," but because Holy Trinity Parish struck me as a place for those Catholics who didn't quite fit in anywhere else. It still is to this day. And so, "Sal" and I paid tribute to this great saint by attending Mass there this past Sunday. They chose the occasion to allow the faithful to bestow a special blessing on the Jesuit celebrant present.

We also gave a blessing to another priest there, who hailed from another order.

That was because August 1 is the Feast of Saint Alphonsus of Ligouri, founder of the Redemptorist order, and a Doctor of the Church. At one point, St Alphonsus was rejected from the order he founded, and was forbidden to say Mass publicly within the Holy Roman Empire -- even though he was by that time a bishop! All this the result of cutting a deal to keep the peace, "for the good of the Church." Yeah, right. And you thought they played hardball among their own today!

In any case, we celebrated the occasion, as usual, with dinner and Latin dancing.

And besides, "Sal" is back to stay, which is as good a reason as any to celebrate.