Subject: austraLasia #1522

From: Julian Fox

Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2006 09:31:26 +0200

To: undisclosed-recipients: ;

austraLasia 1522

DMA is in our DNA: Part 1 for Passion Sunday
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ROME: 9th April 2006 -- It is apparent to the ear - and the eye - that the Rector Major speaks of a certain idea as he moves around provinces, speaks to confreres, preaches homilies, writes for the Salesian Bulletin, addresses gatherings from the academic to the ordinary, speaks with the young.  The idea can be characterised in a word: passion.  What follows refers to the English word even though the texts examined are in Italian.  No difficulty should arise in translation - except that English can choose a range of words to gloss 'passione' if it wishes.  I'll come to that.  We are using a total of 70 texts; by and large every major text the RM has created since 2002 across the range indicated.  He rarely employs the plural form, so it is the singular 'passion' we are considering. That today is also Passion Sunday is incidental - any connections may be serendipitous!
    Using the grossest of all measures - word frequency - we have 85 appearances of 'passione'.  That means little of itself...except for two things: the highest relative frequency of any term (function words like 'of') is 3.9%, and 'passione' comes in at .03%, which puts it at a high relative frequency (most words don't even score); secondly, the 85 appearances are in 31 of the 70 texts - roughly half.  The term is in all but 4 of the 15 major AGC letters.  
    However, these are 'surface' statistics.  It is more useful to accept that human speech ties words together and that real meaning comes out of phrases, sentences, paragraphs, so across 70 texts, what other terms does 'passion' link to most frequently?  We use a measure of 5 words either side of 'passion' as the central term - anything wider stretches the commons sense understanding of meaningful linking. In fact there is a useful statistical calculation called the Mutual Information Score.  When we calculate this for all 70 texts, the 'winner' is clear and outright - mihi animas.   'Da' is not included as a preposition which potentially has too many connections.  At this point we can draw a simple conclusion: Da Mihi Animas (DMA) is what gives us the meaning of 'passion' as used by Pascual Chávez, or turn that around if you wish - passion is what explains DMA.  We also learn that 'passion' keeps good (statistical) company with pedagogy, freedom, growing, disciples, experiences, accompaniment, solidarity, salvation, poverty, fidelity, challenges.... we are beginning to identify an interesting scenario here which could have implications as we move forward to 2008, who knows?
    Now, digging a little deeper, and describing the 'passion-DMA' link other than by statistics, we discover that the reference, when first directly made (in the RM's second letter) is to n.20 of GC25 which in the Italian reads: Ogni comunità è formata da uomini....che esprimono la passione evangelica del 'da mihi animas'...  The English renders the key phrase as the gospel ardour of... ; the translator made a choice other than 'passion', something he is entitled to do, though in hindsight 'passion' may be the way we should read it, for there is absolutely no doubt now that 'passion-DMA' was the link in the Rector Major's consciousness from the beginning, and he has not let go of it; it is elaborated in phrases like 'for the word', 'for God's holiness', 'for Christ', 'for human beings', 'for our mission, 'of Don Bosco', 'educational passion', 'Gospel passion', 'pedagogical passion', 'intense passion' (using subsequent translations of the term).
    Incidental to this but supportive of it is the fact that the International Congress of Religious in Rome two years ago took 'Passion for Christ, passion for humanity' as its main theme. Serendipity, or other forces at work?  What is clear is that the RM's focus predates the Congress and is not the result of it.
    Perhaps one good reason why the translator avoided glossing 'passione' with 'passion' earlier on is that we cannot assume that moderns, including we Religious moderns, are fully aware of the Rector Major's now much clearer direction for the term; 'passion' has had a rough post-Enlightenment ride, after all. What he wants us to accept is that 'passion' is part of our Salesian DNA precisely because of the centrality of 'da mihi animas' to our Salesian being.  Why 'passion' needs a re-assessment and a recall of cultural memory will be the topic of #1523.  Keep tuned.

GLOSSARY
serendipitous(adj):  serendipity - the capacity to discover things by accidental connection. An old name for Sri Lanka, coined by Horace Walpole in 1754 based on the poem 'The Three Princes of Serendip' whose heroes were always making discoveries by accident, of things they were not in quest of.
gloss: in this context 'to translate', though the term 'gloss' used by linguists could also refer to a single language.  Both  noun and verb
DNA: The item that contains the genetic prescriptions for life as we know it: Deoxyribonucleic Acid
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