Between last night and today, we toured three of the four
major basilicas.
It started last night when we were hosted by Cardinal Harvey
at St. Paul Outside the Walls. He is
from Milwaukee and is the titular cardinal of this basilica. It is a truly enormous and inspiring
place. There are two main
highlights. First, it includes the
images of each of the popes around the top.
The current pope is always specially lit. Second, it includes the body of St. Paul and
the chains when he was under arrest in Rome.
Cardinal Harvey was, as always, an amazing host. He personally gave us the tour of the
church. He then led us in Vespers
(Evening Prayer). Following this,
Cardinal Burke, who is from the Diocese of LaCrosse (in Wisconsin), arrived.
I was extremely blessed to be able to meet him and shake his hand. He’s a rock star in my book.
At one point this was the largest church in the West
St. Paul is buried behind the grating, the chains are just above it in a box
We then were able to have dinner. Since Cardinal Harvey is a huge supporter of
the seminarians from Wisconsin who are studying in Rome, all of them were
invited. This meant that I was able to
have dinner with my brothers from Madison.
We were waiting for everyone to end when, huge surprise, Cardinal Burke
sat across from me! I was so awestruck I
could barely talk with him the whole night.
It was a great night.
This morning we started with a bus ride dropping us off on
Palatine Hill. We had a brief walk by
the Coliseum before making our way to our first real stop, San Clemente. As a historian, of course, I love the Roman
stuff, so it was hard for me to walk by it all so quickly, even if I have been
here before.
San Clemente is a big deal because it is a great example of
a Medieval church in Rome (no photo) and it has a beautiful mosaic above the
altar. It was built on the site of one
of the original “house churches” which have been recently excavated, so we were
able to walk through those sites.
We were then off to our next major basilica: St. John
Lateran. First, we stopped across the
street for the Holy Steps, stairs brought back from Jerusalem by St. Helen,
Constantine’s mother, that were where Jesus stood during his sentencing. To ascend the steps themselves you must go on
your knees. I was unable to, so I walked
up the side steps and spent some time in the upper chapels.
Next was St. John Lateran itself, the cathedral of Rome and
the seat of the pope. I had visited her
before, but with Mass going on I was only able to see a little bit. This time, I was able to explore more. One highlight is the huge statues of the
apostles (plus Paul) flanking the main nave.
Another major aspect is the heads of Peter and Paul in the baldacchino. It is a truly magnificent church with more
amazing parts that I simply can’t include here.
It was a real treat.
St. John
St. Peter
St. Paul
The heads
The Seat of Peter
We then hopped the bus over to our next major basilica, St.
Mary Major. First, though, was a quick
lunch (including a stop off for gelato, my second in Italy – lemon and mixed
berry, yum). St. Mary Major was another
church that I had visited but because of Mass could not really see. I am especially glad to return here. We had enough time that I had a half hour or
so to pray before the tour began. The tour
was given by the canon of the church, a priest from Boston (including all requisite
stereotypes)! This was a real treat
because he gave us kind of an insider’s tour.
Parts of this church, including the main columns, date back to 431! One of the first things that cannot be missed
is the gold ceiling, which only popped more when the turned the lights on (a
real WOW moment). Then, below the altar,
is Jesus’ crib. He asked us to pray for
our families, with the intercession of the Holy Family, and then led us in
Silent Night. Next, we were able to see
the sanctuary behind the altar including the amazing mosaic. We were also shocked to find out that St.
Jerome’s relics are in the altar! The
tour continued to the other side altars and finally up to the loggia, the “front
porch.” What a fantastic view! The only bummer was that we were not able to
get into the crucifixion side altar which includes the recently interred body
of Cardinal Law.
Chapel where Cardinal Harvey said Mass for us
The crib
I intentionally took this picture so that the cross is covering up the hideous window placed in the 90s
View from the loggia
Our day ended with another great Italian meal somewhere in
unknown Rome. Tomorrow we have an early
wake-up call for Mass in St. Peter’s! Hopefully the expected rain won’t “dampen” the
day too much!
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