Dear Readers,
June jottings with an Italian Connection for you:
Fr. Larry Lorenzoni S.D.B., the Salesian of Don Bosco priest, who has brought much “joy to the world” with his humor and was quoted regularly in Herb Caen’s daily San Francisco Chronicle for years, is now being quoted by Quotable Cards (611 Broadway, Suite 615, NY, NY 10012, www.quotablecards.com – send one and spread the words – made in U.S.A.) I just discovered Fr. Larry’s new “gig” when my daughter Angela showed me a birthday card she had received from a friend in Colorado, which said “Birthdays are good for you.
Statistics show that people who have the most lived the longest!” (Larry Lorenzoni) The quote was attributed to a Larry Lorenzoni. Any doubts that I had were dispelled on the back of the quotable card which said “Larry Lorenzoni is Italian by birth, American by choice, a Salesian of Don Bosco priest and educator by the grace of God, and here (he says) by mistake of quotable.”
Fr. Larry says that quotable cards contacted him, about a year ago, for permission to use those lines after finding them in an old Herb Caen column, later quoted in Reader’s Digest which mentioned his name. Fr. Larry said that “Last year they must have sold about 30,000 of them, and “quotable” sent me $845.37 (1.5% royalty I guess) on January 15, 2008. I won’t complain. I asked that they make future checks to Salesian Society, in case something happens to me.”
Fr. Larry, who has long been quoted as saying he was born (“in the year of our Lord only knows”) in the quaint, medieval, walled city of Marostica (about 50 miles from Venice where, for more than four centuries, during the second week of September of each even-numbered year, the world famous Living Chess Game is re-enacted on the giant marble chess board of Piazza Castello), just celebrated his 85th birthday in May.
We all wish him much joy and “Buona Salute a Cent’anni”. Friends can reach Fr. Lorenzoni at 1100 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94109, Tel. (415)441-7144, e-mail: Lorenzoni@aol.com
***
Readers who missed some of Caen’s columns quoting Fr. Larry may enjoy a few belated smiles now: In 1985 Archbishop Quinn hosted a dinner in St. Mary’s Cathedral Rectory for Archbishop Felizberto Casmacho Flores of Guam. Among the guests was Sister Mary Bridget Flaherty, the Archdiocese’s new chancellor and first woman to hold that position.
Her presence prompted the Archbishop from Guam to ask Father Larry Lorenzoni “What do you think of a woman as chancellor?” to which Father Larry smiled, “Your Excellence, nobody should be denied equal rights because of the shape of their skin!”… In 1988, Murphy Sabatino, chairman of the Casa Italiana fundraising project at University of Santa Clara, went to Rome to meet with Father Larry Lorenzoni, the S.F. priest who is now a wheel in the Vatican’s worldwide charity operations.
As they were talking business, Larry sighed, “I’m so homesick for San Francisco food!” So Murphy did the next best thing: he took Larry to the Nanchino, a Chinese restaurant near the Vatican… In 1987, Fr. Larry Lorenzoni, late of the Salesian order himself and now a high wheel at the Vatican, is sending local friends photos of himself with the pope, inscribed “The pope is the one in white.” Why is the pope laughing? Because the irrepressible Larry had just said to him, “After 46 years in the U.S.A, I have been condemned to the Vatican.” To which the pope replied “Me too”…
In 1985, Father Larry Lorenzoni handing out ballpoint pens that display his favorite saying: “Work for the Lord. The pay isn’t much, but the retirement plan is out of this world”… In 1988, Archbishop John Quinn was out of town, so Father Larry Lorenzoni of the Salesians was to be his official representative at the Grace Cathedral service honoring Bishop Desmond Tutu.
A couple of days before the event, Fr. Lorenzoni went to the Christian Brothers’ residence on Ellis to borrow his favorite alb (the full-length vestment with sleeves.) There, he ran into the venerable Brother Edmund, who asked, “What brings you here, Father Larry?” Displaying the alb, Fr. Lorenzoni smiled, “Oh, just a muumuu for Tutu”… In 1985, Fr. Larry Lorenzoni, one of the roasters at the Cystic Fibrosis fund-raiser honoring Father Miles Riley, was asked if he is a good roaster. Larry vowed, “I will turn that father into a friar!”…
***
A “No Cake Bake Sale”, may be a good fund-raiser idea to borrow from the S.F. Saint Gabriel Branch I.C.F. #259, as Bay Area temperatures begin to soar and members do not want to be in a hot kitchen baking. Since the year 2001, the I.C.F. chairperson has sent a letter to the membership, usually bordered with cake, pie and cookies art work, asking that members select an item or items they would have baked, figure the cost and then send in checks for that amount.
The money contributed then supports the charity of the organization’s choice. Great idea and less calories too!
***
At Harvard Medical School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, an Italian, Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, is the co-director of the Cancer Research Center. Pandolfi’s group is on the vanguard in the world in the identification of cancer genes. He hopes that in a very few years the complete cancer’s genome can be completed. I hope that in a few years we may learn that people afflicted with cancer are largely being cured….
Harvard University is the oldest center of higher learning in the U.S., founded in 1636. It awarded B.A. degrees alone until 1782, when a faculty of Medicine was added.!
10631 Vinedale Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352 - Phone (818) 767-3413 - Fax: (818) 767-1410
