As part of my recent gig teaching “change management” at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy (UNICATT), the second session focused on the importance of culture. Included was a teaching case which explored how Colby College in Waterville, Maine remained open during the COVID pandemic when most of its peer institutions closed and relied on remote learning. The answer was quite simple.
Everything about Colby from the moment students matriculate to commencement day is about community. Research on the relationship between institutional behavior and culture suggests it is importance to reinforce an organization’s culture through history, heroes, symbols, artifacts as well as rites, rituals and ceremonies. During the pandemic, Colby College emphasize wellness, not for the individual, but for the “Colby community.” Every student wore “COLBY ONE” rubber wristbands. Seniors spoke with underclass students about the importance of complying with the stringent protocols so they could have a traditional graduation at the end of their final year. And college president David Greene sent a clear message at orientation, “The way we carry out our mission, the way we treat people is going to be the most important thing.”
To make this discussion more relevant to my students’ own experiences, I asked them about the culture at UNICATT and how it was reinforced. They pointed to the university’s logo, the statues of saints throughout the campus, plaques commemorating historical milestones such as the school’s reopening after World War II, and donning laurels (instead of mortarboards) at graduation ceremonies. However, to my surprise, no one mentioned the crucifixes and icons in every classroom and office. It was time for the Jewish agnostic to step up. “I am staying in the Augustinianum College guesthouse where every night I go to sleep under a crucifix. Having been raised in the Jewish faith, you might guess it is something I am not used to. (They laughed) However, I understand I am a guest here and appreciate this symbol is a critical element of the university’s culture. And when one accepts an appointment to the faculty, it comes with the territory.” For an audience more versed in Jewish humor, I might have added, “It’s like chicken soup. Couldn’t hurt.”
I could have asked them why they had not included, from my perspective, the most obvious symbol of the university’s heritage, but did not. Instead, after class, as I made the 15 minute walk from campus to Piazza Duomo to grab lunch at my favorite panini stand, I pondered the great irony of my time in Milan. Here I was in the most Catholic nation on earth, and yet, I never experienced the discomfort about religion that I so often feel in my supposedly pluralistic native country. I realized there is no better analogy than this picture. The religious make pilgrimages to the Duomo (cathedral). The fashion conscience make pilgrimages to the Galleria (to the left) which houses luxury brands including Prada, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. There seems to be an invisible firewall between the two as if to say, “Render unto God what is God’s and render unto the fashion designers what is theirs.”
This dichotomy is never more obvious than November 1 in Milan. It is both a sacred holiday La Festa di Ogni Santi (All Saints’ Day) and the more secular Il Giorno dei Morti (Day of the Dead). This was the third time I have been in Milan on this occasion. And each time I made a point to go to the Monumental Cemetery, the final resting place of the region’s rich and famous including composers Arturo Toscanini and Giuseppe Verdi, Nobel poet Salvatore Quasimodo, Formula One champion Alberto Ascari and fashion designer Antonio Bernocchi. What attracts me to this location time and time again is a ritual during which families adorn the tombs with pictures of their loved ones, best described by blogger Rachel Vermiglio Smith .
Entering the cemetery was like going to a subdued party. Everyone was chatting happily and children were running around gleefully.
I didn’t really understand what was happening or what I was witnessing until I heard a little girl, tugging on her mom’s coat, “Mamma! Hurry up! I want to visit grandma and thank her for my new toys! Hurry up! HURRY UP!”
Once my cousin saw my open mouth and lack of comprehension of how a dead grandmother could have left gifts for this child, she explained to me that on this day, the dead visit their family and leave little gifts for the children all around the house.
In other words, November 1 is an annual family reunion to which both living and deceased members are invited.
For some reason, I equated these experiences with the distinction between de jure and de facto segregation in the United States before passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Many northern states had passed anti-discrimination legislation but in places like Boston the racial animosity was always present in both language and action. In contrast, my father shared stories about growing up in legally segregated Richmond, Virginia where he had black childhood playmates who lived in the neighborhood where he lived over his father’s grocery store.
Although Italy is technically a secular nation, the Italian government and Catholic Church have a unique relationship encapsulated in a “concordat” (agreement) which gives the Church special privileges. Yet, despite this agreement or the Church’s cultural dominance, not once did I feel any pressure to participate in or conform to any religious activity nor was I subjected to proselytizing. And, despite the breadth of political discord between the conservative government of Italian prime minister and Giorgia Meloni and the liberal opposition, neither invoked divine blessing as the source of their power or affirmation of their policies.
Ten days after my return to Amelia Island, the most un-Christian person to ever occupy the White House announced, “The churches are coming back…religion is coming back to America.” Which made me speculate which of my two most recent locations was “Wonderland.” Italy, where the separation of church and state, is respected based only on a 1984 accord which removed the primacy of the Catholic Church? Or the United States, where I live in an illogical world somewhere down a rabbit hole, despite a constitutional imperative against an established religion, even though it is ironically grounded in Thomas Jefferson’s belief that such liberty is endowed by the “Creator?”
If only there was someone, similar to Lewis Carroll’s duchess in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, who advised her young mentee, “If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.”
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP
Amen, y’all.