This is a beginning. A journal of events and states of mind, emotions and flights of fancy.
This morning I attended church. Cosimo gave some general instructions on the proper procedures for preparing, blessing, and distributing la Santa Cena. I had requested this by going to Alessandro on Wednesday and telling him that I had seen some errors committed by Fabio as deacon and Dario and his companion as priests. I had seen similar errors in the past. I suggested to Ale that a review of procedures for all with a view toward training new folks be considered by the appropriate authorities, Ale being one and Cosimo another. Ale wasn’t there at the outset this morning, but I was gratified to see that he had spoken with Cosimo about the matter and that Cosimo (who is Ale’s supervisor) undertook to do the necessary (or at least advisable, in my opinion) training. It was done simply and clearly.
Then Fabio led the discussion based on a conference talk entitled “A Defense and a Refuge.” Fabio is relatively new. He didn’t get the Isaianic reference (nor the D&C echo) in the title and theme of the talk. He let the discussion get bogged down in detailed speculations about the 1890 and 1978 official declarations. I felt bad about this because I felt that this was a particularly important conference talk. When I tried to bring the discussion back to the central themes of the original talk, Fabio took umbrage. He got defensive. After the class I made a point of going up to him and telling him he did a good job as teacher for the day.
Next we had a lesson taught by Simona on Ezekiel chapters 37 to the end of the book. It was on the latter day gathering of Israel and Judah and the restoration of the temple and the eternal covenant among them. She did a good job with the lesson. I’m her supervisor, and I must say she has improved noticeably during the past 6 months. She’s less stiff. She’s more willing to accept comments and interruptions and is not put off as much when class members express ideas that had not occurred to her and thus weren’t part of her original lesson plan.
Then the Santa Cena was blessed and distributed. I was one of the blessers and helped guide Fernando as he blessed for his first time. Andy, also new, distributed, and he did well. Then we listened to a wonderful heartfelt testimony by Luis about his feelings upon returning to the fold after a period of wandering. Then Nikki spoke about God’s love for us and our love for God. Finally, Giuseppe spoke about being more outspoken with outsiders when opportunities present themselves. I came away feeling well edified.
For weeks now we’ve been wondering whether Fabio and Erin are married or whether they are living together without the benefit of clergy, as they used to say. They had given different indications to different persons at different times lately. They have publicly (at least at church) maintained that they are not married. Until very recently they have been vague about whether they lived at his parents’ house or at their new house. Now they’ve gone public (at church) that they live together at their new house. I’ve been to the front door. Both of their names are on it. Hers has her maiden name. Last week in church I noticed that she was wearing a ring on her left hand. Today I noticed that he was too. Both rings look like wedding bands (they call the wedding band fede here) and are silver colored rather than the usual gold. I heard from Dario and from Nikki that Fabio promised Cosimo that he’d bring their certificate for him to see. It was surmised from the context that the certificate referred to was a wedding certificate. And when Erin was blessed today, she and Fabio told Cosimo to use Fabio’s last name.
So it seems that they may be married. Who knows? Why hide it if they were? Are they hiding Fabio’s conversion from his parents? Are they hiding a Catholic wedding from us? Are they (or have they been) trying to hide from us the fact that they were living together? Why all the hiding? Since I’m their home teacher, I intend to ask them myself whether they are married, if so when it happened, and why the secrecy.
