Defying the efforts of emperors, kings, popes and engineers to eliminate them, the fetid, malodorous Pontine Marshes — disease-ridden, brackish waters 10-16 miles wide — for 23 centuries lay southeast of Rome. Benito Mussolini not only made the trains run on time, in 1928 he finally succeeded in draining the Pontine Marshes. Reclaiming the land, “Il Duce” built low-cost housing and settled families there. The Lazio region is now a thriving community, producing crops in abundance.

Allow me to tell you a tale of two sons. It begins with a story told by my friend, Father Barnabas, a Franciscan friar in Connecticut. Online conversations with him over the past 10 years have often led to mutually genial exchanges of ideas — not to mention much hilarity and the joy of knowing someone totally at ease with himself as a man, as a Catholic, and as a priest.

The Lord is risen!” “The Lord is risen, indeed!”

Christians around the world share this sign and countersign when greeting each other throughout Eastertide. For the Church, the Bride of Christ, the Resurrection is an event too glorious to observe on a single day.

The late 1800s saw a steep rise in American banking, commerce and industry. A new, ultrawealthy class arose, personified by families named Astor, Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. Collectively, historians have tagged the men who created this wealth “Robber Barons,” reflecting their often cut-throat business tactics. These men and their families also donated vast sums of money to establish charitable foundations, endow universities, and found lending libraries, eventually furthering education and spreading that wealth.

An amusing tale, repeated by Carl Sandburg in his comprehensive biography of Abraham Lincoln, places the future president at a party hosted by the family of Mary Todd, with whom he was romantically smitten.

When Miss Todd asked Lincoln if he might want to dance with her, the awkward, gangling, country lawyer enthusiastically replied, “Yes, Ma’am! In the worst way!”

When was Christ born of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary?

Christians asked that question throughout the first centuries. The Church, however, was more concerned with the anniversary of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection as the central flashpoints of history.

Time was when the cultural celebration of Christmas began the evening of Dec. 24 and ended the evening of Jan. 6 — 12 days. 

As late as the 1940s it was still traditional to wait until Christmas Eve to set up the family tree. Oh, parents might go out a day or two beforehand to tack up strings of colored lights to outline their houses’ porches and gables and hang an evergreen wreath on the door. Even so, the crèche, tree and other major decorations were not seen till Christmas Eve.