Colleen and Harry II
at the Colliseum
Gallery photo
Archbishop O'Brien
Gallery photo
|
MY JUNE ADVENTURE
Colleen McKay
In March I found out about the Baltimore Archdiocese’s pilgrimage to Rome for
Archbishop O’Brien’s Pallium Mass. A pallium is a stole bestowed by the Pope at
a special Mass to archbishops who were appointed since the last feast day of St.
Peter and Paul on June 29.
It did not matter that I was going to be in Venice and Rome in May with my niece
Kristina. It was another opportunity to go to Rome.
I called Delta and found out that I could get mileage business class tickets
from Dulles via Paris to Rome. My friend Lee, a fellow parishioner and member of Catholic Daughter of the
Americas, went with me. I used miles for her ticket. She paid for the room the night we were in Paris, and transportation getting to and from Dulles. We had a day in Paris
prior to starting our tour in Rome. We stayed at a hotel near the Sacre Coeur Church and spent our time near there.
We each paid for the land-only portion of the pilgrimage which was a little
pricey. The thing I did not like is that the hotel was not near the historic
center. My first taste of haggling was at the shared ride counter just outside
customs. They wanted 30 Euros each to take us to the hotel. I said forget it. I
would go to the service across from the train station in the airport which was
only 15 Euros each. That was the price last year with my niece JoAnnah. The
hotel was a few blocks further from the Vatican on the same road than the one
JoAnnah and I stayed at in April 2007. They countered with 20 Euros each. If I
had been by myself I would have done the train and Metro for 12 Euros. But we
agreed.
After freshening up, it was the tour bus ride to the North American College, a
seminary near St Peter’s in Vatican City. Archbishop O’Brien had been rector
there in the 1990s. His new assignment as Archbishop of Baltimore had already
been carved under his name. After Mass in the chapel, there was a wine and cheese
reception at the college. We boarded the tour bus to go to a traditional Roman
family-run restaurant for an evening meal. The food was good but too much. I
asked the waiter to bring less pasta on my pasta course plate. I hate wasting
food.
Friday morning the tour bus left early to get through the Rome traffic to Mass
at Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the four major basilicas. This was the basilica
my niece, Kristina, was too tired to get off the bus and see in May. This is the
largest church in Rome dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
According to tradition, the outline of the church was physically laid out on the
ground of the noble's property by Liberius himself, under a miraculous but
predicted snowfall that took place on the night of August 4-5, 352. The legendary
Miracle of the Snow was depicted by Masaccio and Masolino about 1423 in a
triptych commissioned by a member of the Colonna family for the Basilica. It is now
conserved in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. In it the miracle is witnessed by
a crowd of holy men and women and observed from above by Jesus and the Virgin
Mary. It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of "Our Lady of the
Snows." Local Roman Catholics commemorate the miracle on each anniversary by
dropping white rose petals from the dome during the feast mass.
This church has a Holy Door which is opened only during a jubilee year.
Hopefully I will be healthy enough to make a pilgrimage in 2025, the next
jubilee year.
The tour bus drove around Rome. We saw the open field which is what is left of
Circus Maximus. We were dropped fairly near St Peter in Chains, a minor
basilica in Rome, Italy. It is most famous for housing Michelangelo's statue of
Moses.
The basilica was first built in the middle of the 5th century to house the relic
of the chains that bound Saint Peter while imprisoned in Jerusalem. The chains
are kept in a reliquary under the main altar in the basilica.
Michelangelo's "Moses," which dates from 1515, the most notable piece of
artwork in the basilica. Originally intended as part of a 40-statue funeral
monument for Pope Julius II, "Moses" became the Pope's funeral monument and tomb
in his family's church.
We walked over to the Colosseum for a short tour of the ground level. I had seen
more of it when I was there with Kristina in May. On the bus again driving by
the ruins of the Roman forum, those who wanted free time in the historic
center were off-loaded near the Piazza Navona. I stopped to take a photo of a
doll shop window with dolls dressed in green. I felt something up against my
back. When I turned, I saw it was the horse of a horse and carriage parked along the
street. I guess the horse felt I should be taking his photo, or maybe he was smelling my lunch.
I just wandered over a few more streets to find shade to have my cheese and
bread before finding a gelato bar. I took the city bus back to the hotel for one
Euro. When the tour bus had left the hotel, I read the signs to determine which
numbered city buses came out towards the hotel. I think I was the only person who did
not take a cab back to the hotel.
Saturday we got to leave later for an earlier Mass because the traffic would be
less. Mass was to be at St. John Lateran, or San Giovanni in Laterano. It is also
the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, and is thus known as Omnium urbis
et orbis Ecclesiarum Mater et Caput: "Cathedral of Rome and of the World."
Built by Constantine the Great in the 4th century, San Giovanni in Laterano was
the first Christian church to be built in Rome.
It contains several important relics, a lovely 13th-century cloister, and an ancient baptistery (San Giovanni in Fonte) built by Constantine. The baptistery on the northwestern corner of the church survives in its original form. The rest of the church is much more recent in construction. Fires, earthquakes, and sacking by the Vandals took a toll on the church. Pope Clement XII (1730 - 1740) launched a competition for
the design of a new facade, which was completed by Alessandro Galilei in 1735. This church also has a holy door.
After a tour of San Giovanni, the group walked to the Holy Stairs, consisting of twenty-eight white marble steps. According to tradition the staircase led once to the prætorium of Pilate at Jerusalem, hence sanctified by the footsteps of Our Lord during his Passion.
The historians of the monument relate that the Holy Stairs were brought from Jerusalem to Rome about 326 by St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. In the Middle Ages they were known as Scala Pilati, the Stairs of Pilate. The group did not have time to ascend the staircase on our knees praying at each step. We used nearby staircases to visit the chapel
at the top and the little gift store selling rosaries medals and holy cards.
The tour bus dropped us as near as it was allowed to the Trevi fountain. I
tossed my coin in the fountain. I wondered how long before I return to Rome this time. Our group did not walk to the Pantheon which was nearby but to the Spanish Steps. I filled my water bottle at the Pietro Bernini fountain at the bottom of the Spanish Steps. The group had free time for lunch and/or shopping on the Via Condotti.
It was hot, so I walked up the Spanish Steps to the Trinita
Dei Monti Church at the top. It is the French parish in Rome. Mass in French was being conducted, so I just listened. I said some prayers for friends and family. I did walk down the Via Condotti. People have got to be crazy to pay 113 euros for a small coin purse.
The tour bus took us back to the hotel to change for dinner. The group was
having dinner in a restaurant set in an ancient Roman Bathhouse. Archbishop O’Brien and Cardinal Keller joined the group for dinner. The meal was good. I requested gelato instead of the tiramisu. I don’t drink coffee and you ruin chocolate when you add coffee to it.
Sunday was the big day. An early bus ride took us over to St Peter’s to get in line to go through security. Even getting into the church 90 minutes prior to the start, I was too far back to see the altar clearly. Luckily, my camera has 10 times optical zoom. I was also not near the center aisle. But I was there.
The Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church was present and gave a homily in Italian. He sat at the front of the altar with Pope Benedict until after the Nicene Creed in the original Greek was said. The Mass was said in different languages throughout the service. Forty Archbishops were being installed at this service.
Click here for the Vatican website, and see the Liturgical celebrations for June 29. In Photo 13 the Archbishop on the far right as you
are viewing the photo is Archbishop O’Brien. I could not see that well, but when he
began to speak his portion of the prayers, I recognized his voice. I took a
photo. I do not know why he was selected to concelebrate the Mass with the Pope
at the altar. After Mass there was a reception at the North American College.
Then the tour bus took us back to the hotel. at 10:00 am Monday
morning.
Our group was informed that at 10:00 AM Monday
morning, the Pope was holding a private, not personal, audience
with the pilgrims who had journeyed with the Archbishops. We had to make a choice to visit the Vatican Museum (it was our timed
tour time and could not be changed) or go to the audience. Our tour group was
scheduled to go to the general audience on Wednesday at 10:30 PM. I thought the
general audience was going to be on the square in the heat and I had just been
to the Vatican Museum in May with Kristina. I picked the private audience.
I got a good seat fairly close to the front of the Paul VI audience hall. While
waiting, I wrote my 27 postcards to family and friends. The Pope spoke in six
languages, greeting the people who had journeyed with their Archbishops. Harry II
(my travel bear) and I received a papal blessing along with the other two
thousand people in the hall. Then we met the tour bus and went back to the hotel to get
ready for evening mass at St Paul Outside The Walls.
At the beginning of the 4th century, with the end of the persecutions and the
promulgation of the Edicts of Tolerance in favor of Christianity, Emperor
Constantine ordered the excavation of the cella memoriae, the place where
Christians venerated the memory of Saint Paul the Apostle, beheaded under Nero
around 65-67 A.D. Above his grave, located along the Ostiense Way, about two
kilometers outside the Aurelian Walls surrounding Rome, Constantine built a
Basilica which was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324.
That was not the church that is presently there. There has been a church present on the
site since 324. One of the features is mosaics of the popes from St Peter to
Benedict XVI. The popes’ likenesses from the 1850s forward are accurate. The
others are from paintings or the imaginations of the artist. This present church
was reconstructed and dedicated in 1854 after a fire in 1823.
When our group entered the church for the Mass, a symphony group was filming a
choral presentation. We had to wait for them to break for dinner prior to
starting Mass. After Mass it was a trip down the Appian Way past the catacombs
to go to a restaurant for the farewell dinner. Some members of the group were
returning home on July 1.
Tuesday after Mass at Santa Maria in Trastevere was a free day for sight seeing
on our own. Santa Maria in Trastevere was probably built around 350 AD, although
legend says it was founded by Pope Callixtus even earlier, in the 3rd century.
The church was later rebuilt in the 12th century, and most of the present building dates from this era.
The 22 granite columns in the nave came from the ruins of ancient Roman buildings.
The faded mosaics on the façade are from the 12th or 13th centuries.
In the 18th century, a portico was added and the façade was restored by Carlo Fontana.
The octagonal fountain in the piazza in front of the church is an ancient Roman original that was restored.
This was the titular church of Baltimore native and archbishop James Cardinal Gibbons. When a priest becomes a cardinal, he is
assigned a church in Rome, his titular church. He was archbishop of Baltimore Oct. 3, 1877, to Mar. 24, 1921.
There is a plaque with his likeness on a pillar near the altar.
After taking a picture of the tour guides, I walked over to St Peter's to get a bus to the main train station.
I was going to meet my California friends and their Italian cousins
there at 12:30 pm. I walked over to St Peter’s to take my
holy door picture. I looked for an internet café to check on the train number and hotel address
from the info in my Yahoo inbox. They were in Italy for a wedding and were coming from Milan. I located their
hotel so that I could guide them directly there. It was hot and you did not want
to take wrong turns.
We hooked up and went to a meal after everyone was settled back at the train
station. Gloria, my CA mom, was too tired to go sight seeing. Her son Tom, who
speaks a little Italian, granddaughter Shannon (Tom’s niece), their Italian
relatives who do not speak English, and I went to St Peter’s. This was Shannon's
first time in Rome. She was properly impressed.
We then went off to see St. Paul’s Outside the Walls. When I had been to Mass there
the night before, I noticed the 271 bus end of line stop was at the front of the
church. I suggested to catch that bus at the transfer area, but the Italian
relatives had a different plan. That plan had us taking two different buses and
not getting dropped off as close to the church. I did get to fill my water bottle at
a fountain outside the back of the church and see the bell tower. But by the
time we walked around to the front of the church, it closed at 18:30 and it was
18:50. That’s what you get for a man not taking directions from a woman. The 271
bus was sitting out in front of the Church.
We took the Metro back to their hotel. After dinner I said goodbye and went in
search of a cheap internet café, since I had to submit my Avon order. I got back
to my hotel at midnight. My roommate was worried. I apologized and said not to be
worried, because I would be doing the same on Wednesday.
Wednesday morning it was Mass at Santa Maria in Traspontina near St. Peter’s. A previous church
on that site was knocked down to provide the cannons on Castel Sant'Angelo a clear
line-of-sight during the sack of Rome in the 1500s. Later rebuilt, the dome does not have a drum, but it had been placed directly
on the walls, so as not to infere with the cannons. The high altar was made in 1734 by Carlo Fontana.
It has a very nice Baroque baldachino in marble. The tabernacle is shaped like a globe, which is unusual.
Above the high altar is a Greek icon of the Madonna. It is thought that it was brought to Rome from
the Holy Land in 1216. It was crowned in 1641. The first chapel on the right is dedicated to St. Barbara,
and has paintings by Cavaliere d'Arpino. There are stucco decorations with military symbols, referring to her
patronage of the artillery. The chapel originally belonged to the cannoneers at Castel Sant'Angelo.
If I had known how close it was, I would have told my CA friends to look for me
in the line for the public audience with the Pope. Due to the heat, it was being
held in the Paul VI audience hall. I did not know the tour company had tickets
for us. I had set up to meet the CA group at the Vatican post office after the
audience about noon. We did not connect until the Italian cousin Fulvio found me
about 14:00 when I was looking for my tour guide. I wanted to verify that there would be room
on the tour bus to the airport in the morning.
I now know of a new place to get a gelato and be out of the weather.
Above the underground bus parking garage is a cafeteria and gelato bar. That is where
Gloria was waiting for the family members to gather. We made our way across
town on a bus to tour Philip Neri church. Fulvio had arranged a special tour for Shannon of this church.
We had time to wait. We found a neighboring bar with a gelato counter for our second gelato of the day.
It was so hot that was about all I felt like eating.
After dinner I visited with Gloria at her hotel while the rest of the family went sightseeing.
At 22:00 I left and took the bus back to my hotel. As I was walking across the square to catch the 46 bus
back to my hotel, I heard my name being called. It was the CA group catching a bus back to their hotel.
I just waved because the bus was at the stop. I got back and packed. I was sad to be leaving.
But it helps knowing you can fly business class on the way back.
|
