Verso l'alto!

Before I came to Australia, I had a passing familiarity, thanks to the good work of the Dominicans at PC at educating us all about many of their most notable brothers and sisters, with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Italian 3rd order Dominican who lived at the beginning of the 20th century. A youth leader, social activist, servant of the poor, and avid outdoorsman, Frassati died of polio when he was just 24, making him a popular object for the devotion of many young Catholics. These were things I sort of knew, but I hadn't spent too much time thinking about them.

Almost as soon as I arrived in Sydney, I started to feel as though Bl. PGF (as I'll take the liberty of calling him) was everywhere. During the first week I was here, Fr. Gabriel, the American CFR I liked so much, preached about the pilgrimage he led to PGF's home in Turin earlier this summer, which included two days spent serving people in need in a drug-rehab center. There are huge Frassati banners hanging on the walls at the JPII Center. Many of the students I've met are involved in something called the Sydney Frassati group, a group of young adults who organize monthly outings in hopes of emulating his spirit. Usually, they are bushwalks in the mountains surrounding Sydney combined with Mass, sometimes out in the bush when their chaplain, Fr. Dominic Murphy, OP (the Sydney Uni chaplain) is able to go hiking with them.

As it turns out, Bl. PGF was the patron of World Youth Day 2008, and his body traveled to Sydney for the occasion; it was housed at St. Benedict's on Broadway and in St. Mary's Cathedral during that time, both churches where I've spent a significant amount of time while I've been here.

On Saturday evening, I had the pleasure of attending the Frassati Bush Ball, sponsored by the Sydney Frassati Group (and organized by the lovely Beth McNamara) , held at a rather remote retreat center-type place about 1.5 hours outside Sydney. Although we drove there mostly after dark, it was one of those places that I could tell would have been really beautiful during the day. It was the first time since I have been here that I could really see the stars and enjoy them, a luxury of home that city living has made me miss. It was dinner and a semi-formal dance at a retreat center in a very rural (i.e. the bush) about an hour and a half outside of the city. After the dance, most people stayed over night (we couldn't) and had breakfast, Mass with Fr. Dom, and a bush walk before heading back to the city in the afternoon.

The evening was just delightful. The band that the Frassati Group hired taught the guests a number of different group dances (like the Virginia Reel) throughout the evening. This meant that I could have a fabulous time even though I am the most awkward dancer ever because I was being instructed the whole time and that I got to meet so many different people because a lot of dancers were progressive (rotation so that you danced with almost everyone in the room).

One of the greatest blessings of the evening was an accidental conversation that I had with a young married couple that I had been dancing with, Katie and Andrew. I came to find out that they both moved to Australia from New Zealand in February after getting married in January. As a result of Katie's trip to Sydney for WYD in 2008 where she first learned about John Paul II's Theology of the Body, they have been on a tremendous spiritual journey together. Katie has come to a much more fervent belief in/practice of her Catholicism, and Andrew is in the process of becoming Catholic, something he said he swore he'd never do. Andrew was telling me how he remembered seeing on the news that Bl. Pier Giorgio's body was coming to Sydney for WYD back in 2008 and wondering what that was all about, and now he finds himself involved with a group formed in his honor and that he feels that this is another instance of God leading him to the Church. He was filled with a wonderfully contagious joy in his new faith!

This whole experience has led me to do more independent research on Bl. PGF, and like all the young people here, I can't help liking what I see. It struck me that Pier Giorgio Frassati's commitment to righting wrongs and serving those in need combined with his fervent faith provides a particularly good model of the way that a normal young person today might seek to successfully emulate the Dominican combination of the contemplative and active lives. Whether we are trying the hike to the top of a mountain, serve the poor, speak out about a controversial issue, or serve God more perfectly, there is much to be learned from Frassati's personal motto: Verso l'alto! - toward the top!