Page 31 - LOTN Summer Issue 47 2021

FAITH AND CULTURE

Two dishes the primary school children made using fruit well with a spoon. Sprinkle the oats over the top and press
and vegetables from the Community Garden. down. Bake for 20 to 30 mins at 1800C until the topping is
brown and crisp. Serve hot with cream or custard.
Rhubarb and Apple Crumble
Leek and Potato Soup
For the fruit
500g Bramley apples, peeled and chopped 1 tbsp oil
500g rhubarb, cut into chunks 1 sliced onion
50g sugar 250g sliced potatoes
For the topping 2 sliced leeks
250g flour 2 pints (1.14 litre) veg stock
150g butter 150ml cream
100g sugar salt and pepper
50g oats Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, potatoes and
Put the apples and the rhubarb into an oven-proof dish leeks. Cook for 3-4 minutes until starting to soften.
and sprinkle on the 50g of sugar. In a bowl make the Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Season and
topping by rubbing the butter into the flour until it looks simmer until the vegetables are tender.
like fine breadcrumbs. Mix in the 100g of sugar and then Blend until smooth. Stir in the cream, heat through and
spoon the crumble mixture over the fruit pressing it down serve with crusty bread.

Summer read with papal seal of approval!

BY FR DOMENICO ZANRÈ

ooking for a good book in the Summer months?
Searching for an edifying Catholic novel? Then
Lperhaps you should consider Alessandro Manzoni’s
I Promessi Sposi, first published in 1827, and translated as
The Betrothed.
Although we may not be familiar with this title,
generations of school pupils in Italy most assuredly are!
Indeed, the opening lines of The Betrothed are as ingrained
into the Italian consciousness as the famous initial verses of
Dante’s Divine Comedy. 1 "The Betrothed" focuses on the destinies of two young lovers,
Do you need further encouragement before picking up Renzo and Lucia
this novel? Well, it is one of the favourite works of literature
of Pope Francis himself. The Holy Father frequently includes strive – despite the numerous vicissitudes that they face –
literary references in his papal documents. Apart from the to be reunited once more.
afore-mentioned Dante, the Pope is fond of citing preferred The story takes place in the northern Italian region of
writers such as the Argentinian essayist and poet Jorge Lombardy in the year 1628, and begins with a memorable
Luis Borges, the Russian novelist and philosopher Fyodor description of the small town of Lecco on Lake Como, which
Dostoyevsky, and the German priest and theologian resonates with Pope Francis, since his own family were
Romano Guardini. However, it is Alessandro Manzoni’s originally from a similar village near Asti, in the Piedmont
Betrothed that holds a privileged place in the heart of the region of northwestern Italy. His grandparents emigrated
pontiff. from there to Argentina, and he was born in the lower-
What is so special about The Betrothed? One of Pope middle class district of Flores, in the centre of Buenos Aires.
Francis’ biographers, Austen Ivereigh, sums up the novel His grandmother, Rosa, was the single greatest childhood
in a very succinct way: “It is the Italian equivalent of War influence on the young Jorge, and it was she who instilled
and Peace or Les Misérables, an epic of love and forgiveness in him a love for Italian literature and opera.
amid war and famine, with an unforgettable cast of pious Bergoglio’s own humble beginnings from solid northern
lovers, cruel nobles, virtuous peasants, and a great range of Italian peasant stock finds its fictional equivalent in
ecclesiastical figures: a worldly country priest, a saintly friar, Manzoni’s great novel. Here, the poor, illiterate, central
and an austere cardinal.” 2 characters of the novel are continually put upon by the
The novel focuses on the destinies of two young lovers, high and mighty, but triumph in the end of the story.
Renzo and Lucia, whose marriage plans are thwarted This sense of social justice, which is a key theme in
by the dastardly Don Rodrigo, who lusts after Lucia. The Manzoni’s novel, is appreciated by the Holy Father. His first
plot involves an increasingly intricate series of secondary papal visit, following his election in March 2013, was to the
stories, as the couple are separated from one another, and Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, one of the “peripheries
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