CELEBRATING CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.....SACRAMENTO PRIESTS STUDY DAYS 2010..........

Yesterday the Columbus Day Federal Holiday was observed.  Today is the traditional day designated as Columbus Day in the United States.  It is a day commemorating Discovery of our New Land, and a day of Honor celebrating Italian Americans, for their contributions to our nation.  After St. Joseph's Day on March 19, this day dedicated to this voyager-discoverer looms large as an Italian feast of history and heritage.....Today the Priests of the Sacramento are also gathered at Christ the King Retreat Center in Citrus for our Annual Study Days.  This year we are being an introduction and overview to the new Roman Missal, which is reportedly being promulgated for use at Mass beginning the First Sunday of Advent 2011.....Their have many many fine Italian families who have made lasting contributions to the betterment of America, in business, sports, the arts, science, and in culture.  In Sacramento and California, the same is true.  Personally, one of the outstanding Italian American families I have been privileged to know are the Bugatto-Mugnaini Family.  Archie and Ramona Bugatto and their Family - have been, and are exemplary citizens in regards to the values of family, faith, friendship, fidelity, and fairness.  The late Archie was a stellar native Sacramentan, who worked in the hardware business from age 13, until his medically necessary retirement in 1998.  From ages 13-34, he worked as an employee at two local hardware stores, and then until 68 years old, was owner and operator of his own Archie's Hardware and Gifts, first on Elvas Avenue, and then at 56th and J Streets, in East Sacramento.  In 1959, Archie married fellow native Sacramentan, Ramona Parachini Bugatto and raised two children, Teres and David.  All four family members worked in the family hardware and gifts business together until the store closed in 1998.  Archie and Ramona shared a more than 40 year marriage that was totally loving and devoted, and steeped in strong moral values and great generosity.  I  came to know the Bugattos in 1979, when their daughter Teres, was a freshmen at Sacramento State University, and I was a graduate student.  We met at a Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity recruitment party and that on that night became very good friends.  Teres' husband Michael Mugnaini, who is also a fraternity brother of mine, married her in 1985, and I, then a seminarian, was Lector and Eucharistic Minister at their Nuptial Mass.  Their three children, Christopher, Lauren, and Alexander, I have also baptized as a priest, and I am godfather to Alex.  I was also afforded the honor to preside over Archie's Funeral Mass in January 2000, and to sit with the Family at the 2004 Wedding Mass of David to his wife Julie.  So many memories, such a treasury of blessings, they continue to bring to my life.  As just one superb Italian-American family, it is awesome to think Christopher Columbus whom we commemorated yesterday and today, is the Italian connection, who through the centuries sowed the seed of the Italian-American contributions to the betterment of family, faith, friendship, fidelity, and fellowship, in the USA.....The first day and first three parts of our Sacramento Priests' Study Days on the 3rd Edition, or is it 4th ?, of the new Roman Missal, being promulgated in English on the 1st Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011, meant overview presentations on the past, present, and future, of Liturgical Renewal and The Mass; and very lively discussions among the priests, Bishop Soto, and Diocesan Director of the Office of Worship, Sandra Holland.  We will continue all this on Wednesday and Thursday, in preparation to teach our parishioners the changes in the coming year..........May The Grace And Peace Of God, Who Began All This Good Work Bring It To Fulfillment,   Fr.  Troy