St. Ambrose Legends Retire - St. Ambrose University

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In his mind, it was like a scene out of a movie: A Roman Catholic priest from the Midwest moves swiftly through the Porta Sant’ Anna, past the Gardes Suisses standing watch over the Santa Sede—The Holy See—and into the maze of passageways that make up the Il Vaticano. He passes by Michelangelo’s Cappella Sistina, Raphael’s Stanze della Segnatura. There’s a sense of urgency in his step. His heart is beating a mile a minute. If there were a soundtrack in the background, the beats would be low and ominous and on the verge of building into a lush crescendo. But then, silence. He’s arrived at security. He checks in, handing over his passport (it is another country, after all). And in the best Italian this Midwestern American can muster, he says, “Ho un appuntamento con Monsignore Cesare Pasini.” Into the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana he goes: marble hallways where saints once walked have led him to a surprisingly stark, clinical, modern-looking elevator illuminated with fluorescent lighting. He presses the “up” button, steps in, takes a deep breath and thinks: “People don’t get to do this everyday.” Intimidation has set in. The elevator rises. The bell dings. The doors split open. Centering Ambrogio Bringing our namesake home Months earlier, Rev. Robert “Bud” Grant, PhD, had been scouring bookstore shelves in Milan when he came across “Ambrogio di Milano: Azione e Pensiero di un Vescova,” a book he now recognizes as the best biography of Saint Ambrose available anywhere. “I have to meet this guy,” he had thought as he purchased Monsignor Cesare Pasini’s book and scurried out the door in search of a street he had yet to walk down or a church door he had yet to walk through. Either was certain to reveal something new about ancient Milan or the man who had fascinated Fr. Grant since he was a freshman student on the college campus that bears the Ambrose name. Now, Fr. Grant ’80 sat across from Msgr. Pasini in his sprawling office adjacent to the larger-than-life reading room of the biblioteca, the solid, hardwood desks overpowered only by a ceiling full of Pinturicchio frescoes. He wasn’t sure why Msgr. Pasini, the prefect of the biblioteca, agreed to meet with him, but he was glad that he had. “I explained right away that I was a professor and priest at St. Ambrose University—the only university named after Saint Ambrose of Milan,” he recalled. “This delighted the Monsignore to no end. He just started giving me books about Ambrose, and a list of people I needed to get to know.” Their conversation—all in Italian—turned scholarly, and on more than one occasion Msgr. Pasini flashed a curious smile, signaling that there was more to be discovered about Ambrose, the man the Monsignore had dedicated a lifetime to researching. At one point during their discussion Fr. Grant asked whether Msgr. Pasini thought Ambrose had exercised any influence on Augustine, who framed the concepts of original sin. Msgr. Pasini leaned forward, conspiratorially tapped Fr. Grant on the arm and said, “Not so much his theology—more’s the pity.” “I think he was implying things would have turned out very differently for the Church if Augustine would have listened to Ambrose,” Fr. Grant said. “You see, this whole business of human nature being disastrously flawed, that we are only capable of sinning, Ambrose didn’t believe that. He thought it was rubbish. Rather, he believed people should pick themselves up by their bootstraps and do what needs to be done. He believed Christians could do great things and sent people out to do them. 16
y Ted Stephens III ’01, ’04 “If Augustine had inherited some of that confidence in human nature, we might not have this strain of pessimism that we have in Christianity today. This lack of confidence in our human being.” During this first meeting, Fr. Grant suggested that Msgr. Pasini’s book needed to be translated to English. At that point, the only English-language book on Ambrose had been written by Neil McLynn. When Fr. Grant asked what Italian scholars thought of McLynn’s book, which he described as essentially a character assassination on Ambrose, Msgr. Pasini smiled charitably. “You’ll notice he hasn’t written on the subject since,” he replied. With that, the two men bid farewell. As they did, Msgr. Pasini pulled an article he had written from his satchel—an introduction to Saint Ambrose of Milan, written in his native Italian. He gave it to Fr. Grant. “I had been given a test. He wanted me to translate it.” 17
Page 1 and 2: The Magazine of St. Ambrose Univers
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Page 15 and 16: “Now we know that there are other
Page 17: Diocesan Heritage by Ted Stephens I
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Page 35 and 36: classNOTES Bobby Williams ’52, Ea

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