The Diaspora Encounter

As a historian of a different making, Francisco seeks to capture the heart of his past and that of spirituality through lifetime memories from boyhood days in Shanghai and Macau to day dreams as a young man in Hong Kong, from new family life in San Francisco as a naturalized citizen to rebirth of mind through a number of pilgrimages to Fatima, Medjugorje and Moscow with his extended family. Together with his spiritual partner and second wife of 30 years Terry, he witnessed the crowning of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Red Square in Moscow for the 75th Anniversary of the 'Fatima Apparition' in Portugal. As just two amongst one thousand plus of God's children from bishops to priests, theologians, brothers, sisters, youths and other laypersons that were there that day, they joined together at the 1992 World Youth Congress in Moscow to share a very special message with the world about the need for change. It was a message of 'WARNING' as prophesized by the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, on Sunday the 13th of May in the year 1917. But more importantly, it was also a call for love and spiritual renewal. There has been no phenomenon like it ever before recorded, but the miracle of the sun in Fatima continues to shine bright even at the darkest of times and is the hope behind this book. Many of history's greatest thinkers have wrestled with the question of belief and non-belief in God through their literary circles and often simply by the way they have lived their lives: 1) "Is there a God?" and 2) "Why would He care about me?" Those are profound and universal questions considered in the first two books of this family story and re-visited here in this third encounter in trilogy. Though it might seem unlikely that any new arguments can be raised from either side between Science and Theology on Christendom, ultimately, each reader needs to ask through his or her own voice of Faith this question of GOD and His existence. It is at that spiritual juncture of question and answer that mankind may decide which path to follow. As seminarian students, Terry and Francis took three years of theology at St. Patrick Seminary & University in Menlo Park under the Diaconate Formation Program with the hopes of Francisco becoming a deacon with the Class of 2006. Though God had other plans for Francisco, both husband and wife humbly served at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco and at St. Bruno Church of the San Francisco Archdiocese for three decades. This soulful dialogue is for anyone seeking out answers about Judeo-Christian ethics and the belief that GOD reveals all in time.