What Paddy Shot At

I do apologize again that it has been so long since I wrote. I don’t know where the time goes! A month ago, I left on the train from Chicago to go to California. Our train left at 3pm from Union Station. It left on time. We were shown our “sleepette”, which was up a very steep staircase. I did not come down it again till we got off in Los Angeles. Our room was about 11 feet by 6 feet. It has a sofa against one wall that came up to the window. Past the window was a chair that swiveled. The wall behind it separated us from and the people next door. Then a door that led into a space that can only be described as a closet, with a toilet, just the size of a seated person, and a shower head that moved back and forth and sometime, hit against a pipe, causing the shower to go on and pour water on anyone in its field of vision. I did this a few time!!

We settled in, and signed in for dinner at 6:30pm. We relaxed and watched the scenery pass by. When dinner was announced, we went to the dining car. It was two very long train cars away. Also, it had gotten dark and the train was tossing along. We sat with a lovely lady named Gloria, who was taking the train to visit her son in California. She was very interesting and had a daughter, who is an artist. We got back to our cabin and our beds were “made up”. Mine was easy as it was basically the sofa with the back cushions pulled down and sheets put on it. Poor Pat, had to climb up a ladder and sleep in, what he described as “a coffin that had your head about 6 inches from the roof”. He also had to get into and out of a contraption that was to keep him from falling out during the night. As bad as it was, he chose the top after I said to him, “Do you really want to be in this bottom bunk, knowing that I (and my over 300 lb body could come down upon you as you sleep?” We both read for while and then went off to sleep.

During the night (around 2am), John Bohrer and Dwight Birket, two priests friends who were with Pat and me in the seminary in Wisconsin in September, 1963, came onto the train in Kansas. We all met for breakfast and laughed and laughed. During the rest of the day, we sat together in the observation car or we visited in our rooms or ate meals together. It was great to be with all.

The next morning, we arrived at Union Station and Patricia Horan and Mike Granados, two close friends from the old days at St. Bernard’s, met us and took us on a little tour of the old city and we had a great Mexican lunch. Then, they had arranged a tour of the new Cathedral. It is about six years old, the other one was over 300 years old but was damaged by earthquakes and so this new one was built. I won’t do justice to the great tour our docent gave us but let me say, that if you get a chance to visit it; do so! Notice the tapestries on the sides that seem to be moving towards the altar. A local artist did sketches from life and made them models for some of the saints that you would know – Sts. Ignatius, Dominic, Francis, Catherine of Siena, Therese, and so many others. He also has 12 people (young, old, men, women, small children) who are dressed in contemporary clothes among them; for he says those are the saints of the third millennium. His final drawings were sent to Belgium, where they were woven into the tapestries. Just magnificent!!!

Also there is a fountain in the out of doors as you come onto the property. ”Welcome” is written in 43 languages at the base of the fountain because Mass is celebrated in 43 different languages in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. After this great visit, Pat and Mike drove us to Anaheim, where the LACongress was being held. We arrived the day before and there were 15,000 young people participating in Youth Day. The congress started on Friday. There were 40,000 participants. A story for another day.

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