We are often inspired and awed by people we see in the media or elsewheres but with whom we never have the opportunity to rub shoulders. This evening I wish to share with my readers my own personal encounter with just such a person...... Father Bernhard Häring , C. Ss. R. , a German Redemptorist priest and author of " Das Gesetz Christi " ( The Law of Christ ) , a book which shook the very foundations of the teaching of Catholic moral theology when it was published back in 1954....... with its refreshigly positive outlook on the whole subject. God was no longer portrayed as wielding a two-edged word waiting for us to make a mistake so that we might be rightfully , righteously or judicially sent on our "merry way" to hell which we deserved but rather a merciful , loving God who understood our flesh and bone make-up and who forgave our weaknesses , etc
What I am writing about today is simply an addendum or postscript to what I wrote in my Cortona Chronicles during the Winter of 2006....my years as a theological student at Colleggio San Alfonso in Cortona , Italy during the late 1950s and early 1960s......... and not a plug for Catholicism in any way whatsoever. Being born into a Redemptorist Fathers' parish ..... this Congregation profoundly and favourably marked the first 26 years of my life.......... and I remain deeply indebted to them even today.
So without further " great expatiations" or long-windedness I'll get to the point. Any time I ventured out of our mountain hideout and seminary in Cortona and came to Rome I always stayed at the Mother House on Via Merulana 32 bis..... which lodged the Alfonsianum .... the world centre for Catholic Moral Theology at that time as well as professors and students. As a young seminarian I was highly impressed .......hobnobbing with the great ones in the corridors , sleeping in a cell next to that of Father Van Barfleet , the well-known Dutch scholar..... asking Father Raponi to kindly pass the " pasta asciutta" in the refectory or simply kneeling beside some other "topgun" in chapel during meditation.Like Dixxe says so well in her book... " life was simple back then" and I was young and full of awe !!
It was here that I first met Father Häring , world-renowned author and professor of moral theology ........ and all-around great guy as I was soon to discover. I was walking back to my room on the third floor in the monastery when I passed in front of an open door and was greeted by a cloud of pleasant - smelling pipe smoke.... so I looked in and saw him sitting there......... bent over his desk seemingly in deep thought. and read the name on the door ........ quickly realizing I was in the presence of the man whom I had heard so much about from my teachers and studies in preceding years.......... whose three volumns adorned my desktop back in Cortona. Catching sight of me from the corner of his eye he looked up suddenly and invited me in for a short visit and a smoke. I explained to him why I was studying in Italy and that my two Canadian friends , Abe Sterzer and Steve Kennedy , were studying theology and learning German at the Redemptorist seminary at Gars -am - Inn in Baveria , Germany...... his old alma mater ! To my great delight he asked me outright whether I would like to accompany him to Gars the following month when the Summer holidays began............ and that he would personally telephone my Father Superior in Cortona to make it all happen. Needless to say I was overjoyed ..... and one month later I was sharing the same compartment with Father Häring on the midnight express train out of Rome's Stazione Termini and bound for Munich.
During the ten - hour trip I got to know the man a wee bit and came away convinced that he WAS what he preached in his writings........ a kind , generous and saintly human being who radiated wisdom , peace , love and understanding in his every word and gesture. I felt very privileged and humble and I still feel the same way today as I sit down here at my desk .........as the three volumns of " Das Gesetz" stand proudly on the bookshelf behind me..... within easy reach ! Father Bernhard died in Gars on July 3rd , 1998 at age 85.
P.S. It was widely rumoured around Rome that , in spite of his meek outward demeanour and mild manners , Father Bernhard nourrished a profound dislike for zealous hypocrites as well as certain members of the Roman Curia and their overly rigid interpretations of what Christian morality was or should be. One afternoon I went to the University of Rome la Sapienza where he was invited as guest speaker only to find him standing beside the podium before a large audience in full harangue mode........ finger pointing out the window across the Tiber toward Vatican City ......... and saying how inane and "assinine" he found the Curia's proposition to place Via Veneto , Rome's " jetset "street of " debauchery " and ill repute which Felini had just made famous in the movie " La Dolce Vita" , on the Sodom and Gomorrah list .... and thereby off limits to Catholic clergy under pain of automatic excommunication . The students , all young priests and seminarians like me , began showing their approval by stomping their feet and pounding the desktops with clenched fists. I got a real eyefull that day...all part of the learning process I guess !!
