Here’s W's official Confirmation photo. With him are Dan and Bishop David O’Connell. Bishop O’Connell grew up in Ireland, still has the accent, and gave a homily at the Confirmation that included a lot of reminiscences about being a kid in Ireland.
I usually prefer photos in digital form, but the church sent us a print instead, so this scan has some artifacts. Oh, well.
Speaking of bishops, I recently attended the high school graduation ceremony at the invitation of a student I have known for the past three and a half years. I originally met C. at the LA County Science Fair, when he was a 9th grade student presenting in Physics, and I was a judge. He was astonishingly capable for a 9th grader. We gave him 2nd place, which sent him to the CA State Science Fair, where I ran into him when I was a judge in another category. Shortly thereafter, he asked if I could mentor him in physics, and I agreed and exchanged a lot of e-mails about physics, summer jobs, coursework, and other science fair ideas. I wrote him a number of letters of recommendation, and I was happy to hear that not only did he get offers and nice financial packages from a couple of out-of-state colleges, but he also got into (and decided to attend) UCLA, where he’ll major in physics.
Anyway, I attended his high school graduation at St. Monica’s Academy, where I was happy to see (and, in retrospect, not terribly surprised) that he was valedictorian, and he gave a very strong, almost aggressive valedictory. (One phrase I used to describe him, in my letters of recommendation, is that he’s “aggressively inquisitive.”)
Oh, yes, bishops: The celebrant at his graduation Mass (which I didn’t attend — it was a work day) and special speaker at his graduation ceremony was Bishop Robert Barron, of Word on Fire and also an bishop of the LA Archdiocese.
——
7/3/18: Oh, yes: Intelligence.