Posted: September 3

Saints on line- finally

It is Friday afternoon in my office and everyone else is long gone. I am sitting here listening to a folk radio station from Boston that comes over the internet (UMB). The jump in quality from when web radio first came on the scene a few years ago is incredible. I like having access to more music and hearing the latest news from Boston, even though there is a six hour difference with Rome.

I feel especially celebratory because I just uploaded all the files for the newest section of sjweb: brief lives of almost 200 Jesuits whom the Church has recognized as saints or blesseds. I have been working on this project for several years. Almost anything else that came up pushed the saints into the background. Some extra time in Zimbabwe this summer gave me the chance to finally finish the writing and editing of the images. And then in the last few weeks back in Rome, this quietness of August gave me time to finish the task and fix all of the pages. In the process I made some changes to the home page of the site as well. Not world-breaking news, but I feel very contented. And being able to write this as I listen to music is all be better a way to celebrate. The only problem with having a web site is that they are greedy little things, never content with what you did last week. I still have more to write about Jesuits in communication. I am not saying that they are not saints or blesseds (that is a matter of conjecture that it would ill behove me to make), but it is OK for them to wait for just a bit so that we can honor the men who lived, and in many cases, died so well.

The Labor Day weekend is starting back in the States, but we are still in the post-summer doldrums here. Things are returning to normal, but ever so slowly. I think I will celebrate the saints by going out into the garden to water the roses.