Ciao a tutti:

The Italian Education, Culture & Language Committees (IECLC) are very excited about their participation in moving forward worthwhile projects within our state, which will enhance the experience of our members in better appreciating the legacy of our Italian culture, heritage and traditions. These committees will have a joint meeting on June 7th in Endicott, NY to continue their work. As Coordinator, I must commend their enthusiasm and commitment to further the work of our Order.  We are fortunate to have such a dedicated group of men and women throughout the Empire State and the results of their collaborative work are already evident. Ben fatto Sorelle e Fratelli.

Fraternally,
Robert Necci  

WORTH REPEATING

“I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream -- a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality.”  ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. AFL-CIO Convention, December 1961

SPECIAL

COLUMBUS REMAINS FOUND IN SPAIN

Researchers Claim Bones In Cathedral In Seville Are Of Explorer

CBSNews/Associated Press – Madrid, Spain - May 19, 2006

Spanish researchers said Friday they have resolved a century-old mystery surrounding Christopher Columbus’s burial place, which both Spain and the Dominican Republic claim to be watching over. Their verdict: Spain’s got the right bones.

A forensic team led by Spanish geneticist Jose Antonio Lorente has compared DNA from bone fragments that Spain says are from the explorer, and are buried in a cathedral in Seville, with DNA from remains that are known to be from Columbus’ brother Diego, who is also buried in the southern Spanish city.

“There is absolute matchup between the mitochondrial DNA we have studied from Columbus’ brother and Christopher Columbus,” said Marcial Castro, a Seville-area historian and high school teacher who is the mastermind behind the project, which began in 2002. Mitochondria are cell components rich in DNA.

He spoke a day before the 500^th anniversary of Columbus’ death in the northern Spanish city of Valladolid.

Castro and his research colleagues have been trying in vain for years to convince the Dominican Republic to open up an ornate lighthouse monument in the capital Santo Domingo that it says holds the remains of the explorer.

Juan Bautista Mieses, the director of the Columbus Lighthouse, a cross-shaped building several blocks long, dismissed the researchers’ findings and insisted Friday that Columbus was indeed buried in the Dominican Republic.

“The remains have never left Dominican territory,” Bautista said.

The goal of opening the lighthouse tomb was to compare those remains to the ones from Diego in Seville and determine which country had buried the man who arrived in the New World in 1492, landing at the island of Hispaniola, which today comprises the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Castro stressed in an interview that, although his team is convinced the bones in Seville are from Columbus, this does not necessarily mean the ones in Santo Domingo are not. Columbus’ body was moved several times after his death and the tomb in Santo Domingo might conceivably also hold part of the right body. “We don’t know what is in there,” Castro said.

Castro said that in light of the DNA evidence from Spain, the objective of opening the Santo Domingo tomb would be to determine who, if not Columbus, is buried there.

“Now, studying the remains in the Dominican Republic is more necessary and exciting than ever,” he said.

Columbus died and was buried in Valladolid on May 20, 1506. He had asked to be buried in the Americas, but no church of sufficient stature existed there.

Three years later his remains were moved to a monastery on La Cartuja, a river island next to Seville. In 1537, Maria de Rojas y Toledo, widow of one of Columbus’ sons, Diego, sent the bones of her husband and his father to the cathedral in Santo Domingo for burial.

There they lay until 1795, when Spain ceded Hispaniola to France and decided Columbus’ remains should not fall into the hands of foreigners.

A set of remains that the Spaniards believed were Columbus’s were first shipped to Havana, Cuba, and then back to Seville when the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898.

In 1877, however, workers digging in the Santo Domingo cathedral unearthed a leaden box containing bones and bearing the inscription, “Illustrious and distinguished male, don Cristobal Colon.” That’s the Spanish way of saying Christopher Columbus.

The Dominicans say these were the genuine remains and that the Spaniards took the wrong body back in 1795.

Lorente is the director of the Laboratory of Genetic Identification at the University of Granada. He usually works on criminal cases but has also helped identify people killed under military regimes in Latin America. His lab works regularly with the FBI.

Castro says the team is now focusing their DNA tools on another Columbus mystery: his country of origin. Traditional theory says he was from Genoa, Italy, but another line of argument says Columbus was actually from the Catalonia region of northeast Spain.

One piece of evidence supporting this latter idea is that when Columbus wrote back from the New World in Spanish, not Italian, he used words and phrases that reflected influence from the Catalan language, Castro said.

The new team has now collected DNA samples from more than 350 men in Catalonia whose last name is Colom, the Catalan way of saying Columbus, and from 80 in Italy whose last name is Colombo. The material is obtained by wiping the underside of their tongues with a cotton swab.

The idea is to compare the genetic material with DNA from another authenticated Columbus relative, his son Hernando, who is buried in Seville. In this case, another kind of DNA is focused on genetic material from the y-chromosome, which men receive only from their fathers.

DNA from y-chromosomes is much more scarce than the mitochondrial kind and deteriorates more rapidly. The team is using Hernando’s because that of his alleged father is in bad shape.

Lorente and company want to see if the DNA pattern in Columbus’ y-chromosome still shows up in men in either Catalonia or Italy, which would suggest he is from one place or the other, Castro said.

It is not known when the results of this second study will be available because the data from Italy is still scant.

“The people whose last name is Colombo are cooperating less than the Coloms in Spain,” he said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/19/world/main1636214.shtml

IN THE NEWS

May 14, 2006 – Press World - Italian Americans and Federal Hill – The Documentary

The story of Italian immigrants, the hardships they faced, and their successful integration into American Society while preserving their customs and traditions has been a story largely untold if at all. Inaccuracies of Italo-American society, family and history have been perpetuated by movies like ‘The Godfather’ Coppola ‘72), ‘The Untouchables’ (DePalma ‘87), ‘Goodfellas’ (Scorsese ‘90), ‘A Bronx Tale’ (DeNiro ‘93), and ‘Federal Hill’ (Corrente ‘94). While some stereotyping happens with all immigrants and nationalities, movies like these fill the minds of children with absolute rubbish and label people with Italian ancestry unfairly. Movies, plays, skits and even animated movies like the hit “Sharktales” poke fun at Italians as comic relief and stoop to give the bad guy an “Italian hoodlum” feel. By contrast, an upcoming documentary movie holds promise of a different view and fill the huge void left by the Hollywood crowd. Aptly called “Italian Americans and Federal Hill,” this film serves up historical reality, nostalgia, traditions, food, family values and the importance of education as related by Italo-Americans themselves in their own words. The official web site is at www.italianamericansandfederalhill.com

For the complete story visit the following site:

http://art-entertainment.press-world.com/v/68854/italian-americans-and-federal-hill-the-documentary-advance-review.html

May 15, 2006 – Newsday (Long Island, NY) - Five Generations within Two Blocks in Queens

On a quiet, winding road in Little Neck sits one block where nearly every family can trace its roots to the same Italian village and an 88-year-old woman with an amazing organic tomato sauce recipe. Yes, nearly all live within a single block of each other. All except the two youngest, who moved into a house the next street down. By most American standards, it could be the equivalent of holiday family reunion stress times 365 days of the year. But for the five generations of women who live on Leeds Road, life couldn’t be happier. Children - Casagrande has 25 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren, though not all live in the neighborhood - roam from one backyard to another. Holidays are assigned to one family or another. And, naturally, any restaurant reservations have to be made far in advance. Mother’s Day is spent in their respective households, notwithstanding, of course, a visit to Casagrande, the mother of it all. “What really matters is the legacy you leave behind, your children and traditions,” Savocchi said yesterday. “Of anything I could have possibly done in my life, this is what gives me the most joy.”
For the complete story visit the following link:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-limoms154742787may15,0,6915870.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines

May 15, 2006 – Hollywood Reporter (Rome, Italy) - Italians No Longer Avoiding Homegrown Films

Italian films, for years maligned even in their own country, are enjoying a renaissance, with box office booming and critical accolades rolling in. According to Italian cinema monitoring company Cinetel, some 34% of Italian box office receipts have come from local films over the first four months of this year, compared with 23% for all of 2005 and less than 15% in most years. Figures have been buoyed by such commercial successes as Carlo Verdone’s “My Best Enemy,” Fausto Brizzi’s “Night Before Finals,” Nanni Moretti’s “The Caiman,” Michele Placido’s “Crime Novel,” and Cristina Comencini’s “Don't Tell” -- all of which have raked in more than EUR5 million ($6.4 million). “My Best Enemy” heads the pack, approaching EUR20 million ($25.7 million) in ticket sales. Italian television tells a similar tale of local success: Some estimates are that four out of five films shown during primetime on national networks are Italian, compared with an estimated one in five or less a decade ago.

For the complete story visit the following link:

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=filmNews&storyID=2006-05-15T233125Z_01_N15333632_RTRIDST_0_FILM-ITALY-FILMS-DC.XML&archived=False

May 16, 2006 – UPI (Milan, Italy) - New Kind of Cement Absorbs Pollution

An Italian company has begun marketing a cement that is capable of absorbing pollution from vehicles. Italcementi, which spent 10 years developing its TX Active, said the building material is capable of reducing urban pollution by more than 40 percent, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Tuesday. Tests on a road near Milan showed TX Active cut the level of nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide by as much as 65 percent. It functions via a chemical process called photocatalysis, whereby sunlight triggers a chemical reaction when titanium dioxide on the surface of the cement comes into contact with pollutants in the air. TX Active works most effectively in bright sunlight. Italcementi said test results have been verified by independent bodies like the National Research Council. TX Active cement has already been used on a number of buildings, including Air France’s new headquarters at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, Rome’s Dives in Misericordia church and Bordeaux’s Hotel de Police.

http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1164468.php/New_kind_of_cement_absorbs_pollution

May 16, 2006 – Associated Press - Italians Move to Clean Up Soccer

A former Italian senator was assigned to clean up Italian soccer amid a growing scandal involving accusations of game-fixing, illegal betting and manipulation of referee assignments. Guido Rossi, former chief of the Italian stock market regulator Consob and an expert in sports law, was approved Tuesday as extraordinary commissioner of the soccer federation. “Rossi will have to rewrite the rules, ethics and morals,” Italian Olympic Committee president Gianni Petrucci said. “His duties are urgent, pressing and under everyone’s eyes.” Rossi, who was appointed to a six-month term, said the “crisis is grave.” He plans to immediately contact prosecutors investigating the scandal and nominate four assistant commissioners Thursday. “I'm not worried, I accept the challenge,” Rossi said. Rossi will have to act quickly. The Champions League preliminary round draw is the end of July, and European soccer’s ruling body needs to know which clubs will take part. Prosecutors said last week four clubs - Juventus, Lazio, AC Milan and Fiorentina - are involved in the game-fixing investigation. The illegal betting probe involves Juventus and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
For the complete story visit the following link:

http://www.forbes.com/business/services/feeds/ap/2006/05/16/ap2750488.html

May 18, 2006 – ANSA (Rome, Italy) - Italians Fight Food Discrimination

Top Italian chefs are leading the fight on discrimination against sufferers of celiac disease and food allergies, according to a new study. Celiac disease is an intestinal disorder caused by an inability to digest gluten, a substance found in wheat, barley and rye. Sufferers - who number as many as one in 300 people in Europe and the USA - are forced to avoid foods like pasta, bread, pastries and beer. As a result many stop dining out because it is difficult to find restaurants that cater for them. But this is becoming increasingly unnecessary at Italy’s top restaurants, according to a survey conducted by Eta Meta Research. The study showed that over a third of top restaurants in Italy - chosen by the main food guides - have special dishes or complete menus for clients with this condition. “The great restaurateurs have shown themselves to be very attentive to the needs of people with food problems,” said Eta Meta Research President Saro Trovato. “They are not just doing this with special menus, but also through their contacts with doctors and the associations that represent sufferers.
For the complete story visit the following link:

http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-05-18_1182186.html

May 19, 2006 – AGI (Rome, Italy) – Italians Abroad: D’Alema “Precious Undervalued Resource”

Italians abroad are a “precious resource that is not always valued,” stated Foreign Minister, Massimo D’Alema, who, on taking office wanted to send his fellow citizens a “warm greeting.” He said that they are even more so now, “with the right to vote being finally given to them.” For D’Alema, however, it is necessary to do more. “The presence in Parliament of a delegation of Italians from abroad is not just reason for justified pride,” he added, “it must serve as a stimulus to further change government and public administration actions, bringing them ever closer to the legitimate expectations of Italians abroad, even those far away.” To obtain this, D’Alema assured that he would work to the best of his abilities.

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200605191300-1080-RT1-CRO-0-NF82&page=0&id=agionline-eng.italyonline

May 19, 2006 – ANSA (Venice, Italy) - Music String Makers Hit by Mad Cow

Italy’s musical-string makers are fighting a mad-cow ban on the use of their raw material, animal guts. “This ban makes no sense. You can’t eat a violin string,” said Mimo Peruffo of the Aquila company, the leading Italian producer of strings. Aquila uses the intestines of sheep and cows, both outlawed under a European Union ban on offal and other animal parts introduced to halt the spread of mad cow disease. The company, which is based at Caldogno near Venice, has been forced to turn to a gut supplier in Argentina, the only country the EU rates as risk-free. “It’s simply not enough to ensure future production,” Peruffo said. “We’re faced with the risk of shutting down because of a lack of raw material.” Peruffo pointed out that, at the end of the production process, his strings are painted or clad with silver-coated copper wire. “This eliminates all risk for humans. But the ban stands. The extension of the measure to cover strings is absurd. Our product is simply unfit for human consumption - for the right reasons.”
For the complete story visit the following link:

http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-05-19_1197168.html

May 19, 2006 – Asahi.com - In Sight/ Show Gives Pompeii Gems Ginza Treatment

Mount Vesuvius rises 1,281 meters from the Bay of Naples. The area surrounding Vesuvius is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Italy--home to vineyards, a national park and several million people. The scenery is beautiful, but Italian authorities are offering residents tens of thousands of euros to move away from Vesuvius. This is due to fears Vesuvius will revisit its persona of almost two millennia ago, when in volcanic fury it visited molten rock, superheated gas and burning ash on nearby Pompeii, burying the vibrant city under a black shroud of death. An eyewitness account of the eruption from Pliny the Younger, whose letters were discovered in the 16th century, says: “People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying. Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more imagined there were no gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness for evermore.” After the A.D. 79 eruption, Pompeii was literally lost and remained so until a chance rediscovery nearly 17 centuries later. Ambitious excavation projects launched during the mid-18^th century have since unearthed remarkably well-preserved artifacts. Among them are the frescos, sculptures and jewelry that make up the exhibition “Pompeii: Stories From an Eruption.”

For the complete story visit the following link:

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200605190129.html  

May 19, 2006 - The Gainesville Sun (Gainesville, FL) - Mural Brings a Touch of Italy to Campus

To University of Florida graduate Maegan Walton, a wallet-sized photo of her recent trip to Italy didn't quite capture the essence of what she had seen there. So she affixed a near life-sized image of the picturesque setting on an exterior wall of the architecture building. Walton, 28, said she created the 12-foot-by-27-foot mural as a way to get other students engaged in the work done by the School of Architecture. The mural was part of Walton's master's research project and thesis. The mural was printed on a large scale so that passers-by would get the feeling they were walking into the city of Vicenza in Italy, she said. “The mural is of a theme that you would see every day in Vicenza,” Walton said. It is made up of 22, 3-foot-by-6-foot photographs that were pieced together on the architecture building. The mural is of a bridge crossing called the Soglia Italiana, or the Italian threshold, in Vicenza made up of ancient ruins and other cultural buildings.
For the complete story visit the following link:

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060519/LOCAL/205190347/1078/news

COMMUNITY EVENTS CALENDAR

For a listing of many Italian and Italian American programs, updated regularly, visit the John D Calandra Italian American Institute’s Community Events Calendar at the following link:

http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/calandra/community/commcal.html

CONVENTION CULTURAL DISPLAY

Each Lodge has a little HOMEWORK to do: Identify a few photos/programs/brochures/press clippings (you get the idea...) of cultural events you have held in the last year that you would like to showcase on our posters which will be displayed at the IECLC table throughout the convention. These posters (one per District) will be assembled during the June 7^th/8^th District Chairs meeting, being generously hosted by District VII Chair, Giuseppe Pastore (Duca Degli Abruzzi Lodge #443). Please save your dinner dance photos for the more appropriate venue (i. e., the Golden Lion). We are looking for cultural programs to highlight. Please send your ‘show and tell’ materials to your district chairs. Feel free to give me a call – (631) 256-6397 or drop me a line at: CultureNYSOSIA@optonline.net if you are unsure which of the events/activities/initiatives to include! I’m sure we share the common objective of putting our best foot forward and letting all NYS OSIA know of the fine work each lodge is doing.

GOVERNOR PATAKI AND MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCE FRANK SCIAME TO LEAD EFFORT TO ALIGN MEMORIAL VISION WITH $500 MILLION BUDGET

       Governor George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that Frank Sciame will lead the effort to ensure a buildable World Trade Center memorial. Sciame will convene the Memorial and Master Plan Design Committee of Michael Arad, Peter Walker, Max Bond and Daniel Libeskind and work in coordination with the LMDC, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the WTC Memorial Foundation to ensure the memorial is brought in line with the $500 million budget. The Governor and Mayor have set the end of June as the deadline for resolution.
       “Frank Sciame has graciously agreed to lead this very important process,” Governor Pataki said. “Frank has an acute appreciation for architecture, is an established New York builder, and a great supporter of Lower Manhattan and I have the greatest confidence that we will have a resolution that we all can be proud of by the end of June.”
        “The creation of a fitting memorial to all those we lost of September 11, 2001 is the centerpiece of our collective rebuilding efforts and we remain committed to adhering to the vision of Michael Arad and Peter Walker’s ‘Reflecting Absence’, to maintaining the long established budget of $500 million, and to keeping our promise to open the memorial by September 11, 2009,” the Governor added.
       Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said, “We will never forget what happened on September 11, 2001 and it is paramount that we make sure we are able to build a memorial that captures the depth of those attacks while honoring the memory of those lost.  Frank Sciame’s breadth of experience building in Lower Manhattan and restoring some of New York City’s most historic landmarks speaks for itself and we are fortunate that he has agreed to join this important effort to ensure we have a project we can be proud of that is built on time and within the budget set by the Governor and myself.”
       Frank Sciame said, “I am privileged to be chosen by Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg to serve in this very important role. Our ambitious vision can be realized and I look forward to working with the design team to ensure the success of this process. Honoring the heroes and innocent victims of September 11, whose lives, actions and ultimate sacrifices were displayed to the world is our nation’s responsibility and I am humbled to do my part.”

[Nota: Frank Sciame is our National IPP Joseph Sciame’s second cousin and they are the descendants of Giuseppe Sciame, their great grandfather. Their two grandfathers: Giuseppe (for Joseph) and Antonio (for Frank) were brothers.]

BOOK REVIEW

The Overseer’s Family: A Memoir of the Tuscan Countryside by Cassandra Vivian

Prof. Jerry Krase, Brooklyn College, CUNY

The Overseer’s Family is the story of every immigrant family that came to America. Although it revolves around a mother and daughter from Pennsylvania who return to Tuscany to discover and tell family secrets, it could be any family returning to its homeland to discover the past. While enjoying meals of Tuscan cuisine, the pair learned the truth about how the family lived in Italy in the early part of the 20^th century. They walk the ancestral village just as their grandfathers and grandmothers did for generations. They meet the family aunts and uncles and discover the same family traits existed on both sides of the ocean. They learn of the mezzadria, the peasant/padrone system that kept not only their family, but most of the peasants of Europe, bound to the land in serfdom.  They were horrified as they discover that the mother’s parents were star-crossed lovers who abandoned family and country for a new life in America. While they listen to story after story of life in the past in Italy, they tell how the American side of the family, mill workers in a small industrial town south of Pittsburgh, fought for unionization in America and  helped create the American middle class. Then they discover how the Italian family survived the American bombing of World War II, and are fearful that the steel for those bombs may have been made by them in their local steel mill.

But their journey is not only of the 20th century. As they move through the Tuscan countryside they move back in time to the family origins. In Arezzo they encounter the padrone, the aristocratic family that kept their family enslaved for centuries. In Florence they meet what could be their Renaissance family, who were part of the Medici court and helped build the bridges and buildings of that glorious city. Finally, in Il Casentino, a magnificent valley hidden in the Tuscan past, they find the pivotal event not only to their family, but for all of Tuscany and perhaps all of Europe. They follow the Arezzo army to the 12th century battlefield of Campaldino and watch for three days as the Florentines destroy the glory and honor of the Aretines. This event would eventually elevate Florence to be the greatest artistic center of the world, while Arezzo and their family would fade from power forever. They scan the battlefield looking for the family. Instead they meet the poet Dante, who fought for Florence in this battle and placed half of the dukes, princes, and bishops of the fray in his Divine Comedy. Dante has a message for them. Piece by piece, year by year, century by century, as the mother and daughter find their past they find everyone’s past. They discover who we all are. The Overseer’s Family is funny, it is sad, it is angry, but most of all it touches your heart.  Publisher: Publish America. ISBN: 1-4137-9858-6.

THE VALENTE ITALIAN COLLECTION

The Valente Italian Library at Seton Hall University Walsh Library was established in 1997 by Sal Valente as an expression of love and gratitude to his father and mother, Bruno and Sue Valente. The collection has grown to more than 16,000 volumes devoted to Italian history and culture. The collection expands every year thanks to a substantial endowment devoted to the acquisition of new and rare books, with a concentration from AD 400 to the present.

Among the impressive selection of titles and authors, the collection includes numerous monographs and most major reference series such as the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani; Fonti per la Storia d’Italia; Rerum Italicarum Scriptores; Storia d’Italia UTET; Storia d’Italia Einaudi; Storia dell’Italia Contemporanea; Grande Dizionario Battaglia; Storia di Milano; Storia di Torino; Storia di Napoli; Storia della Sicilia; Storia di Venezia; Sanudo’s Diarii; and Mussolini’s Opera Omnia.

The Valente Library is used both by the public and by Seton Hall’s students, approximately 30 percent of whom have Italian ancestry. Space for the collection was recently increased by 50 percent because of the tremendous depth of information, the collection has emerged as a major resource for scholars specializing in Italian history and culture.

For further information about visiting hours, events and titles, please visit our website: http://library.shu.edu  

O CLICK ALLYE FAITHFUL

The nun who launched the Vatican’s Web site is at work on a MySpace for Catholics

By Steve Hamm, BusinessWeek – May 8, 2006

Deep inside the Vatican, a white-haired nun dressed in a brown habit opens the door to a room full of computers. The whirring machines hold some of the mysteries of the Holy See, including photographs of the Vatican Secret Archives and of ancient illustrated manuscripts. No, this isn’t a movie trailer for The Da Vinci Code. Our guide is Sister Judith Zoebelein, the editorial director of the Internet Office of the Holy See. She’s showing off a small but potent Vatican data center, which bristles with servers and other high-tech gear.

It’s no secret that the Vatican has a fantastic Web site. It brims with fine art and practical information about the Catholic Church. The site, www.vatican.va, which comes in six languages, was even nominated for a prestigious Webby Award a few years back. But little is known about the woman who is behind it. Sister Judith, a 57-year-old American, grew up in a middle-class household in the Hamptons on the eastern tip of Long Island. She and a handful of colleagues were Internet pioneers when, in 1995, they launched the Vatican Web site. Since then, she has greatly expanded the site, including images of art from the Vatican Museums, a powerful search engine, and videos of restoration projects.

Now Sister Judith is creating a second Vatican Web site, set for launch in the fall, which is aimed at bringing together the faithful so they can interact. Think of it as Myspace.com for Catholics. There will be personal news updates, e-learning programs, and areas set aside for families, young people, and parishes. Collaboration is key, and that should differentiate the site from others in its genre. “People will be able to find each other and work together online, and then go back and use what they have learned or done in their own communities,” says Sister Judith.

Winding Path

The new site will likely boost visitor traffic, as well. The current Vatican site typically gets about 1 million unique visitors per month, though when Pope John Paul II died last April, it spiked up to 1.8 million U.S. visitors, according to traffic tracker Nielsen/ /NetRatings. That temporarily put it in the same league with the most popular religious destinations including Beliefnet, a multi-faith site, and the Mormon Church’s site.

How did an English major from a tiny American beach town end up becoming the Internet nun? It was a winding path, but a search for meaning in life runs through it. After graduating from Hofstra University on Long Island, where she studied Irish drama, Sister Judith joined the Peace Corps and spent two years teaching English in rural Thailand. Later, back in the U.S., she studied to teach English as a second language. But meeting a group of nuns, the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, rekindled her childhood Catholicism, and she joined the abbey in Meriden, Conn. “I was looking for some-thing meaningful and eternal,” she says.

As a member of the abbey, Sister Judith got assignments with social service agencies that landed her in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Over the years, she took an interest in computers and set up computer networks and telecommunications systems in relief agency offices around the world. She was called to the Vatican in 1991 to help out with its computing chores. “She had the skills, and she was also very much an international personality-thanks to all of her travel,” recalls Mother General Shaun Vergauwen of the Franciscan Sisters.

Sister Judith identified the Web’s potential shortly after it exploded on the scene in the mid-1990s. She and a small group of Vatican techies took the idea of launching a Web site to John Paul, who quickly gave them the go-ahead. It was a humble beginning: Sister Judith posted one Web page containing a single document, the Pope’s 1995 Christmas Message. But the site expanded rapidly and now contains a huge storehouse of information-not just for the faithful but for art lovers, historians, and tourists.

Two features stand out. For Catholics, the search engine is a powerful tool to help them explore their faith. Type in a keyword such as “forgiveness,” and you’ll get results organized around various sources, including the Pope, the Catechism, and the saints. For aficionados of Renaissance art, the site is a revelation because of its use of 360-degree photography of the Vatican’s galleries and close-ups of artworks. Many of the Vatican’s finest paintings are ceiling frescoes. The only practical way to see them close up is on the Web site. “This is an example of the Web providing an experience that can’t be had in the real world,” says Tiffany Shlain, founder of the Webby Awards.

Now, with the coming of the new faith-based community site, Sister Judith is satisfying an evangelical drive that she has felt since her Peace Corps days, For her, the Net is the ultimate way to reach millions of people and to connect them with their deity. “It’s about something much bigger than myself, and it’s also very Franciscan: You can touch it, you can change it, and you can touch people with it,” she says.

While Sister Judith is, quick to embrace the latest technological innovations, don’t expect to see Vatican bloggers anytime soon. A blog is “so personal, such a mind dump,” she says. On the Internet, the Vatican draws the line at self-indulgence. Pride, remember, is one of the seven deadly sins.

CIVIL WARS AND DESPOTISM

Plagued by murderous ambition, Rome’s politician-generals turned their armies against each other – and even against Rome herself.

By Steve Bonta, The New American – November 29, 2004

This is the fifth installment in a series of articles on the rise and fall of the Roman Republic.

Travelers passing along Rome’s Appian Way between Capua and Rome in the spring of 71 B.C. were greeted with a gruesome sight. For mile after mile along the road, festering bodies hung from crucifixes as kites, jackdaws, and other carrion birds picked at the remains. More than 6,000 men had been brutally put to death along Rome’s main thoroughfare. They were not common criminals but captured soldiers of a former gladiator named Spartacus, who had led a damaging revolt against the Roman government.

Defeated by Crassus, one of Rome’s iron generals, thousands of Spartacan rebels had been publicly executed as a salutary lesson to others contemplating rebellion against the Roman state. The bodies were never removed, but hung on their grisly scaffolds for years thereafter, a grim and poignant reminder of the monstrous regime taking shape in the heart of what had once been the world’s freest civilization. In 71 B.C., the mass executions along the Appian Way were only the latest in a series of horrors that Rome had endured during nearly two decades of civil war and despotic government. No doubt some of the older passersby, who remembered Rome in better days, gazed on the fly-blown victims of the latest convulsion and wondered: how had the republic come to this?

The First Civil War

It began with the so-called Social War, which erupted in 91 B.C. At issue was a long-standing sore spot among the non-Roman Italian peoples living under Roman rule. For centuries, Rome had been absorbing other Italian peoples into the republic, but had never granted them Roman citizenship. When a consul named Drusus, who had been pushing to extend citizenship to non-Roman Italians, was assassinated, the Italian cities formed a league and revolted against Rome. Tens of thousands of Romans and Italians died in three years of brutal war - in which Marius and Sulla, two of Rome’s most prominent military leaders, became bitter political enemies. The war ended when Rome negotiated a settlement granting citizenship to non-rebellious Italians and to those rebels who laid down their arms.

In the meantime, another threat to Rome had arisen in the east, in the person of the formidable Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus, a powerful state in Asia Minor.  Mithridates was a prototypical oriental despot, having come to power by murdering most of his siblings and marrying his own sister. He is said to have spoken 25 languages and to have spent years building immunity to every kind of poison then known. He possessed a huge, well-equipped army and navy. Having territorial ambitions of his own in Asia Minor and the Aegean, Mithridates detested Roman power and the high-handed way in which the Romans presumed to dictate terms to every other nation. In 88 B.C., as the Social War was petering out in Italy, Mithridates decided to make his move against Rome.

In that year, Mithridates’ agents instigated a massacre of all Romans living in Asia Minor. The victims, numbering in the tens of thousands, included merchants and diplomatic envoys as well as their families. After such a catastrophe, Rome had little choice but to declare war on Mithridates, an enterprise that promised to be Rome’s greatest military exploit since the Second Punic War.

Rome’s First Despots

With such a prospect for personal glory, the rivalry between Marius and Sulla, which had simmered since the Jugurthine War more than a decade earlier, exploded into the open. Sulla, serving as one of Rome’s consuls, was chosen to lead the campaign against Mithridates. Marius, seething with envy but having no legal recourse, allied himself with the newly enfranchised Italian citizens of Rome. He encouraged them to vote for a new law giving him command over the Mithridatic task force.

Furious, Sulla decided to use the troops under his command to unseat Marius before turning his attention to Mithridates. Although many of his officers resigned in protest, his foot soldiers, eager for the spoils of war in the East once Marius was out of the way, followed their leader in a fateful march on Rome. Sulla was met along the way by several deputations, who asked him why he was marching against his native land under arms. His reply, shameless and unwavering, was the rationale of usurpers in every age: “To free her from tyrants.” As his troops swept into Rome, they encountered only light resistance from the Marians, and large-scale butchery was averted - for the time being. Marius himself slipped out of the city and escaped to Africa, intending to regroup and return. Sulla meanwhile lost no time in reforming the Roman constitution in his favor, which included installing several hundred new senators and diminishing the power of the tribunes, who since the days of the Gracchi, Rome’s first full-blown demagogues, had been exercising unconstitutional, demagogic power.

His reforms, though long overdue, had been instituted by force of arms, setting Rome on a path toward despotism from which recovery was increasingly unlikely. “This was,” noted Appian gloomily, “the first army composed of Roman citizens to attack their own country as though it were a hostile power. From this point onwards their conflicts continued to be settled by military means and there were frequent attacks on Rome, and sieges, and every sort of incident of war, because nothing remained, neither law, nor political institutions, nor patriotism that could induce any sense of shame in the men of violence.”

After having a number of prominent Marians killed, Sulla, anxious to leave the seething capital, took his army and departed for Asia Minor. There, in what became known as the First Mithridatic War, he eventually forced Mithridates to capitulate. In less than three years, Sulla’s forces killed more than 160,000 of the enemy and recovered Greek and Asian territories annexed by Mithridates. The monarch of Pontus himself, however, was allowed to live on and to rule over his original domains because Sulla had run out of time. During his absence, Marius had returned to Rome and had instigated a reign of terror.

Proscriptions and Pogroms

Sulla had left as his consular successor in Rome a man named Cinna, who soon allied himself with the Marians and with the voting bloc of new Italian citizens. In a showdown with the other consul, Octavius, who represented the Senate and the interests of the old citizenry, Cinna was defeated, divested of his consular office, and chased from the capital city, whereupon he began inciting neighboring cities to rebellion. He soon raised an army and returned to encamp outside of Rome. The Roman consuls summoned an army of their own and encamped nearby, while the city waited fearfully for what was sure to be a dreadful outcome. The fugitive Marius seized this opportunity to return from Africa, and using his past military exploits as a sales pitch, quickly raised yet another army and marched to Rome to join forces with Cinna.

The Marian forces cut off Rome’s food supplies. The Senate, seeing that conditions were hopeless, negotiated the surrender of Rome on condition that Marius would not perpetrate a massacre. As the terms of surrender were accepted, records a somber Appian, “Marius, standing beside the consular stool, said not a word but made it plain by the savagery of his expression what murder he would unleash.”

No sooner were Cinna and Marius ushered into Rome by the cowed citizens than an orgy of bloodletting was unleashed the likes of which Rome had never witnessed nor could have imagined. All political enemies of Marius were cruelly put to the sword, and the heads of slain senators, consuls, and praetors were put on public exhibit in the forum. “No one,” says Appian, “was permitted to give any of the dead burial, and birds and dogs tore apart the bodies of such distinguished men. There were many further unauthorized and uninvestigated murders carried out by the rival parties All [Sulla’s] friends were put to death, his house was razed to the ground, his property was declared forfeit, and he was proclaimed an enemy of the state.”

Marius died before he could be re-elected consul, but Cinna remained in power with another longtime confederate, Carbo. Cinna was then assassinated by a mob of unruly soldiers, leaving Carbo in sole command of Rome.

In the midst of this bloody tumult, Sulla returned from the East, bent on retaliation for the Marian outrages. He quickly attracted many allies, including the able general Metellus, who had been busy stamping out the last remnants of the Social War, and a young general named Gnaeus Pompeius, or Pompey, who raised three legions in support of Sulla. With these forces, Sulla for the second time marched toward Rome.

This time, the consular forces, led by Carbo and Marius, the son of the late despot, engaged Sulla’s forces in a number of battles across Italy and overseas. The conflict escalated into an epic civil war that claimed many tens of thousands of Roman lives in Italy, Africa, and even Spain. Sulla’s generals won a string of victories against the Marians and committed widescale atrocities in many conquered cities. When Praeneste fell, thousands of her citizens were put to the sword. When Narbo was overwhelmed, her city, along with most of its inhabitants, was burned to the ground.

Sulla finally entered Rome and launched a fearful bloodbath there as well, massacring dozens of senators and thousands of noblemen. “He was so terrible and quick to anger in everything,” wrote Appian, “that he killed Quintus Lucretius Ofella [a former friend] in the open forum…. After this, Sulla called the people to an assembly and said: ‘Understand this, my friends, and hear it from my own lips: I killed Lucretius because he would not obey me.’ And he told them a story: ‘A farmer who was plowing was being bitten by lice. Twice,’ he said, ‘he let go of the plough and shook out his tunic; but when he was bitten again, he burnt the tunic so as not to keep wasting time. So I advise people who have been defeated twice not to ask for incineration the third time.’ With these words, then, Sulla reinforced their terror, and ruled them as he pleased.” Even Plutarch, so often the eulogist, had little good to say about Sulla’s character: In general he would seem to have been of a very irregular character, full of inconsistencies with himself; much given to rapine, to prodigality yet more; in promoting or disgracing whom he pleased, alike unaccountable; cringing to those he stood in need of, and domineering over others who stood in need of him, so that it was hard to tell whether his own nature had more in it of pride or of servility. He was also, Plutarch tells us, shamelessly immoral, consorting with dissolute entertainers night and day. His riotous lifestyle brought about physical as well as moral deterioration. He was afflicted by a “creeping sickness” that saw his flesh corrupted by an unknown cause and his entire body literally eaten alive by lice.

Before meeting such a horrible end, Sulla had abdicated his dictatorial power - the only Roman despot ever to do so. A deceptive calm settled over Italy, although the civil war persisted for several more years in distant Spain before the last remnants of the Marian forces were finally annihilated. In the year of Sulla’s death, 78 B.C., the purges had subsided, Mithridates had been placated, tenuous threads of legality still held the Roman Republic together, and the Spartacan revolt still lay ahead.

But forces were already in motion that could not be stopped. Mithridates would soon rise again, providing political opportunity for the ambitious young general, Pompey. The Spartacan revolt would do the same for Crassus. Yet another military prodigy, Julius Caesar, who had already distinguished himself in various Asian campaigns, was in Rhodes studying the art of rhetoric and persuasion, preparing for a political career.

In the space of only a few decades, the Roman Republic had descended swiftly from irresponsible demagoguery to full-blown despotism and from militarism overseas to civil war at home. The decades and wars that yet lay ahead were to produce horrors beside which even the atrocities of Marius and Sulla would pale. But they were also to be a season of tragic heroism, as the final defenders of the old republic -Cato, Cicero, and Brutus - made a magnificent last stand on behalf of Roman civilization and liberty.

ITALYMONDO.COM

Welcome to italyMONDO.com, the world’s premier company and website regarding our proud Italian heritage. Although many of our sites, such as MyItalianAncestor.com and MyItalianTown.com, are not active as of now, please keep checking back as, following my upcoming business trip to Italy this Spring, these various sister sites will open for business in the Summer of 2006, including the much talked about UpstateNYItalians.com (With full databases of all Italian who immigrated to Upstate New York... FREE!) and our online magazine, MONDO!. It’s a very exciting time of for italyMONDO, to say the least! So, at this time, we are allowing early users to sign up for our online magazine, which will allow “members” to keep up-to-date on the status of the sites, and also receive some special treats such as pictures and videos of my upcoming trip. Of course, it’s completely free; This is simply our way of reaching out to the international Italian community. All we need is a name and e-mail, which you can submit via the newsletter sign-up box below, or directly via an e-mail to the address shown below. E-Mail: pete@italymondo.com or write to: 7 Hover Avenue, Amsterdam, NY 12010

For more information visit the following website:

http://www.italymondo.com/

UPCOMING EVENTS

• May 25-28, 2006 — Annual Festival by Joe DiMaggio Lodge #2248. Food, live music and fireworks. East Fishkill Recreation Area. Contact: Dave Totillo, (845) 632-1452.
• May 27, 2006 - Districts 3 and 4 Bocce Tournament Playoff, Morris Park, Bronx. 11 AM.
• June 3-4, 2006 — The Garibaldi Meucci Museum presents Festa Italiana at the Staten Island Zoo. 11 AM. Contact: (718) 815-5632.
• June 17, 2006 — Free Concert presented by Centennial Lodge #2828 OSIA member, Michéal Castaldo at 8:00 p.m. Rain Date (TBA). The Common Ground - Rotary Park, between Candee and Gillette Avenues, Sayville, LI, NY.  Bring a blanket or a folding chair.
• June 22-25, 2006 — 100^th Annual NYOSIA State Convention at the Holiday Inn Turf, Colonie, NY. Contact: Rae Lanzilotta at (516) 334-0830.
• June 26, 2006 — Italian Night, Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre, Eisenhower Park, East Meadow. Contact: Carolyn Reres, (516) 358-5010 or reres@juno.com
• July 12-16, 2006 — Annual Lady of Mt. Carmel Feast. Constantino Brumidi Lodge #2211. Contact: Roy Perticone, (631) 242-5492.
• July 16, 2006 – Grand Lodge presents Italian Day with the Long Island Ducks. Information to follow.
• July 21-22, 2006 — Summer Italian Festival at the Geneva Lodge #2397 Pavilion. 2 PM. $2 per person. Contact: Dan Chelenza, (315) 781-2203.
• July 23, 2006 — Gino Di Napoli presents the best Italian/American music. 1 PM. Sit down luncheon at the “Bavarian Inn,” Lake Ronkonkoma. $30 per person. Limited seating. Advance tickets required. Contact: Gino DiNapoli, (631) 242-5808, dinapoli1@aol.com or website: www.ginodinapoli.com
• July 29, 2006 — Summer Plenary Session. Hosted by Rockland Lodge #2176, Blauvelt, NY. Contact: Marianne Principe O’Neil, (516) 785-4623.
• August 5, 2006 — Bocce Tournament at the Geneva Lodge #2397 Pavilion. 12 Noon. $20 per person. Contact: Jamie Kaim, (315) 781-2242.
• September 24, 2006 — Garibaldi Meucci Museum Annual Brunch at LaGrange Inn, West Islip. 10:30 AM. More information to follow.
• October 1, 2006 — Italian Feast by Columbus Lodge #2143 at North Broadway, Massapequa. 11 AM. Contact: Tony Ventiera, (516) 797-4992.
• October 29, 2006 — “The Giglio Feast of Brooklyn” by Prof. Salvatore Primeggio for the Loggia Glen Cove #1016. Held at the Glen Cove Library, Glen Cove. 2:30 PM. Contact: Kathryn Grande, (516) 676-7436.
• November 5, 2006 — Gift of Sight Annual Luncheon at Immaculate Conception Center, 7200 Douglaston Parkway, Douglaston, 1-5 p.m. More information to follow.
• January 26, 2007 — 14^th Annual Winter Charity Ball at the Chateau Briand, Carle Place. More information to follow. Contact: Annette Lankewish, (516) 933-7393.

Nota del Redattore:

• The Italian Heritage & Culture Committee will send out a weekly news synopsis of articles and announcements of interest which compliment the Italian and Italian American Experience in America. Our sister and brother members are urged to submit items of interest.
• This report is available online at: http://www.nysosia.org/heritage.asp

Respectfully submitted:
Robert Necci
Coordinator - Italian Education, Culture & Language Committees
Chair – Italian Heritage & Culture Committee
2101 Bellmore Avenue
Bellmore, NY 11710-5605
HeritageandCultureReport@nysosia.org

STATE PRESIDENT CARLO MATTEUCCI

Goals & Objectives: 2005-2007 Administration

ITALIAN CULTURE, HERITAGE and EDUCATION

To promote, preserve, and support our Italian culture, heritage, and language by implementing this element of the Order in our parades, functions, meetings, and conventions.