Catholic Scholar Takes Long View on Church

As Christians around the globe call for change, for arms, for peace or for loyalty, Catholics at Corpus Christi enjoy a call to reflect on the very foundation of the church for a month every summer. Fleeing the heat of Rome, Augustinian priest and scholar Rev. Angelo di Berardino takes his summer retreat in the Palisades. ‘I like to be as far away from my usual job as possible,’ Fr. Angelo says, contrasting not only the Italian mentality with the American character, but also departing from his rigorous scholarship. Fr. Angelo, who lives and works in the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome, has spent his life reading, researching and writing about ancient Christianity and the fathers of the church. He lives in the general Augustinian headquarters, which, while not technically in Vatican City, is directly across the street from the papal palace. While Fr. Angelo is an ordained Augustinian priest, his ministry, he says, is more behind the scenes, teaching and publishing. Following a career path to the priesthood, which was not so unusual in his day, Fr. Angelo entered the seminary at 15. He studied history and psychology and focused his graduate studies on ancient Christianity, particularly on the heroes of the church in the 4th century, including St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Gregory and St. Nicholas. After ordination in 1962, Fr. Angelo was called by the secretary- general of the order to teach in Rome. He obeyed, but found those early years difficult. ‘I was accustomed to a more active life, and I didn’t feel prepared. A natural extrovert and accepting of everybody, Fr. Angelo began to branch out, meet people and to publish. ‘Life became more enjoyable.’ His prodigious scholarship paid off in his first book published in 1978 on the Fathers of the Church, 4th century. A scholarly encyclopedia of Christian antiquity, the two-volume compendium brings together a cross-section of Christian traditions and authors covering topics such as the personalities of the church, and the relationship between Christianity and the thought and philosophies of the pagan world. Fr. Angelo’s route to Corpus Christi started in Rome. In 1993, he met Judge Lawrence Waddington, a Palisadian and convert to Catholicism, who invited him to come to Los Angeles to visit. He took him up on the offer and came to Corpus Christi, where the pastor, Fr. Mihan, welcomed him with an open-ended invitation. ‘He said just told me to give him two days’ notice before I come,’ Fr. Angelo remembers. In the last couple of years, Fr. Angelo has made his annual foray in August, and parishioners have learned to anticipate his visit. ‘He comes here every summer and you have to get on the list to have dinner or lunch with him,’ Carol Sanborn says. In a church the size of Corpus Christi, Fr. Angelo’s presence is welcome. Although he says ‘the way you teach is different from the way you preach,’ his sermons focus on the history of the church. His topic may be women in the early church, who were more involved before the development of a hierarchy of clergy curtained their activities. On the topic of how Christian values were implemented in pagan society, he offers a number of precedents. ‘The separation of church and state was implemented by the Christians. In pagan world, the high priest was emperor. The Christian calendar was introduced and the concept of the week, with Sunday, the day of the Lord, becoming the day of worship.’ Fr. Angelo stresses the importance for Christians of knowing the history and theology in keeping focus on the fundamentals of the faith, but also to better prepare for reform. The reforms instituted by Pope John XXIII included a number of changes that would have been quite familiar to early Christians, such as the involvement of the community. ‘In the first century, there were more people involved in the church community, before everything ended up in the hands of the priests.’ Fr. Angelo departed for Rome on September 11, but he’ll be back next summer ready for more of ‘The American Freedom.’