Читать книгу A Friar's Tale - John Collins - Страница 5

Preface

A Friar’s Tale started out as one thing but ended up becoming something quite other. It began in 2012 as a brief and rather jaunty little memoir. It also was supposed to be Fr. Benedict’s last major publication. He knew he was rapidly approaching a moment when writing would no longer be possible for him, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to throw away his pen. He wanted one more crack at doing a book, and he wanted it to be something that would be easy and that he would enjoy writing. Despite all that, his plan to do a memoir astonished those who knew him. It seemed out of character and even daring. Father, you see, was a very private man and (in the Irish way) saw no good reason to share the particulars of his life with anyone beyond a small group of intimates. He was not used to putting himself at the center of his writings. In fact, that was something he had avoided for years. But he made a commitment to do so, and then rather fearlessly he entered the uncharted territory of self-disclosure.

He made several tapes that became the basis of the first chapter before illness and circumstances forced him to stop work for a lengthy period. When he was able to begin again he was living a new life as a resident of a nursing home in New Jersey. He had little to do and was eager to pick up where he had left off, but he actually didn’t pick up where he had left off. He picked up nearly twenty years later. And that was to become the pattern from then on. He would speak about whatever came into his mind at the moment: his time as a novice, his years at Children’s Village, his coming to Trinity Retreat. There was no rhyme or reason as far as I could see, but the book slowly began to take shape as if it were a jigsaw puzzle that needed to be painstakingly pieced together.

By the time a little more than one hundred pages were done Father’s strength had deteriorated to such an extent that he couldn’t continue. He tried but could produce only disjointed bits and pieces that were often repetitive or even contradictory. The project was shelved as we prayed for better days. Those days were not to come, and so at Father’s death the manuscript consisted only of those same pages, not a word had been added in at least a year.

So it seemed that A Friar’s Tale would never see the light of day. It would remain but a tantalizing fragment. However, it was a fragment that seemed to exert a surprising pull on some of those who knew of its existence. Many of those people hoped that some way could be found to bring the manuscript to completion in a way that Father would have approved of. A tall order, indeed!

Our Sunday Visitor wanted to give it a try and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal also thought it a reasonable idea. As Father’s last editor and the one who had worked with him on the manuscript from the beginning, I was chosen to try to turn his fragment into a book. I have to admit I was paralyzed for a very long time, feeling that I might be betraying Father by turning his last effort into something he might not have liked.

Finally, I gathered all my courage and gave it a shot, and this book, whatever its merits, is the result of that shot. This is not the book that Father imagined. This is something quite other, though it incorporates every word of the text he lived to complete. It now oscillates between his words and the words of other people—my words and those of his many friends who dug deep into their memory to supply the pieces of Father’s story that were missing. This book therefore contains a multiplicity of voices, although the voice that predominates is that of Fr. Benedict.

A Friar’s Tale makes no effort to be an all-inclusive biography. It deals with the topics Father thought important to share with his readers. It certainly includes all those things that formed his original outline plus a good deal more, and its purpose is to offer a sustained view into an astonishing life. In years to come more extensive biographies will certainly be written. They will be huge tomes, for Father’s life was long and very, very full. This book is simpler; it is but a friar’s tale, the tale of a friar who changed countless lives for the better. This book includes the loving efforts of a great many people who knew Fr. Benedict well over the different periods of his life. They shared their recollections so freely and completely that it is truthful to say that much of A Friar’s Tale is drawn directly from the memories of those who cared deeply for Father. They cared enough to attempt to finish what God hadn’t given him the time to finish. They thought him important enough to make possible the realization of his final project—his last letter to the world.

Following are the names of the people without whom this book could never have been completed:

Charles and Theresa Kenworthy

Charles Kolb

Edward and Zelda Widstock

Robert Smith

Daniel Quiñones

Carol Vunic

Fr. Darius DeVito, OFM Cap

Fr. John Claremont OFM Cap

Fr. John Lynch

Msgr. John Farley

Marjule Drury

Fr. James Lloyd, CSP

Fr. Bruce Nieli, CSP

Joseph Campo

James Lonergan

Edward Helmridge

Cathy Hickey

Charles Pendergast

Fr. Glenn Sudano, CFR

Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR

Fr. Fidelis Moscinski, CFR

Rev. Colleen Holby

John Burger

Fr. Joseph Sheehan

Natalie di Targiani

Thanks to Ilya Speranza and Richard Berger for reading portions of A Friar’s Tale in various stages of progress and for their comments and criticisms.

Special thanks to Peter D’Arcy for his perceptive editorial comments and especially for his limitless patience.