Brother John Gilbert Shea, CFC ( 1920 - 2007)

Fratello Gilberto at the Boys’ Town of Rome

Vieni a tavola nostra. Mangi con noi oggi. Come to our table. Eat with us today.

Fratello Gilberto addressed the insistent conflicting requests for his attention with a fixed rotation among the eight tables of four in the Ristorante Cittadino of Garden City, home to the younger “citizens” (ages 10 - 14) at the Boys’ Town of Rome. Anyone ever at table with Gil understands what these youngsters sought and found in their Christian Brother Zio.

During our fifteen years as a community of two, three or four Fratelli Cristiani at the Citta’ dei Ragazzi (Boys’ Town of Rome), I came to rely on Gil as my advisor, counselor, consoler, spiritual guide and wisdom figure. When it came to any use of the written word, he was and remained to his death my primary proof reader. Much of what may have reached you in my e-mail missives from Rome or later New York City or Miami, had first received his close scrutiny in terms of grammar, style, political and ecclesial correctness and prudence.

His most recent service in this area was a Review for Religious article he critiqued during the Christmas holidays. (http://www.reviewforreligious.org/abstracts/66files/moffett.pdf . Its delayed publication now coincides with the time of his death. He cautioned me about an introductory story that associated the piece too closely to identifiable events and individuals. It was deleted. With respect to anticipating a time of not having priests available, he commented: “it is more sensible to use what is available until the “famine” comes. Retrenching now is a form of spiritual hunger strike. Let us rejoice while the Bridegroom is still present.”

He became passionate on the issue of presence: “.…there are various ways through which one may experience the presence of God, but, in itself, the most exalted is the REAL PRESENCE, the full meaning of which is dimmed in these days when reality and virtuality are confounded. In Penal Law days, political office and ordinary advancement depended on denial, on oath, of the Real Presence in the Species.” He liked the section on what it might mean to “behold”.

He concluded his critique with New Year greetings: “Anno Nuovo -- che sarà ? We had a good Christmas here in the community and in the extended family. On Christmas afternoon, forty four of the clan gathered as I did the Santa for the small fry of the fourth generation. Keep us in your prayers. Regards to all for a serene New Year. God bless. Gil”

Should you work your way through the article, I would like to suggest that you allow your memories of Br. Shea, assuming you have had the privilege of knowing him, to inform and enrich two of the themes -- what it means to be “at table” and the power of prayer in the first person plural.

Those who made their home at the Girls and Boys Towns of Italy, generations of young citizens, the staff and administration join with Br. A. Edmund D’Adamo, Br. Neil Langan and me in expressing condolences to Br. Shea’s family and friends. We do so in prayerful thanksgiving, delighting in the knowledge that Gil will always be part of the “we” welcoming us all to the table of the Lord.

Brother Patrick Sean Moffett, CFC
4949 NE 2nd Avenue