Day #105: The Beatification of John Paul II

At the beginning of the semester, the University had no intention of sponsoring a trip to Rome for the Beatification of John Paul II. However, as more and more students expressed interest in going, the faculty agreed to alter our schedule, provide transportation and even some food for us to travel to Rome for this momentous occasion in Church history for our generation, as well as for Franciscan University - after all, John Paul II is one of our alumni, having received an honorary degree from our university! So it is only right that we came and represented our beloved Papa and favorite alumnus! The trip itself began on Saturday afternoon after our morning final - I had Art Appreciation, which was relatively straight forward and easy. For part of the final, I had to draw one of the paintings we had studied since the midterm, so I picked Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring. 

Girl With A Pearl Earring by Vermeer

My imitation

After the final, I spent the remaining hours studying for my Christian Marriage Final, which was on the following Tuesday. We boarded the buses at 2:00, had a last minute meeting to go over logistics with Tom Wolter, such as our drop off and pick up point. Dr. Asci also went over a few minor details with us, such as May 1st also being Labor Day, a day Communists invented, and also a day in Rome when there are commonly Communist demonstrations and protests around Rome. Asci told us that these demonstrations would be on the side of the Tiber opposite the side of St. Peter's Basilica. These demonstrations are not allowed to go near the Vatican. However, Asci warned us that if we were to cross the Tiber, to not draw attention to ourselves as Catholics or as Americans. "Communists don't like either of those," he said. So with maps in hand and "X" marking the spot of our drop off point, we boarded the bus for our final pilgrimage of the semester ... to Rome!
We took the winding roads through the Alps down to Italy. It was a gorgeous drive although I felt sorry for those who suffer from motion sickness. :-/ During the drive we watched the sequel to Karol: A Man Who Became Pope, titled Karol: The Pope, The Man. While the first movie had focused on his life prior to becoming pope, this movie concentrated on the events of his life as Pope. As we watched his life unfolding, I was struck by the connection between him and Bl. Teresa of Calcutta. You know how sometimes saints come in pairs: St.s Benedict and Scholastica, St.s Francis and Claire of Assisi, St. Catherine of Siena and Bl. Raymond of Capua? I never realized that Bl. John Paul II and Bl. Teresa  might be one of those pairs of saints supporting each other in prayer as they fulfilled their own mission within the Church. Also on the drive down to Rome we saw two rainbows! Beautiful!
We arrived in Rome at about 6 am in the morning, right on schedule, despite oil trouble on the road which forced us to stop at a gas station/convenience store for about an hour and a half. (Don't worry, I made use of it and studied a little Christian Marriage, a final which was looming on the horizon). We were dropped off very close to St. Peter's, but it was still a bit of a walk. The street lamps displayed banners of the soon-to-be beatified's smiling face. The streets were lined with venders selling various memorabilia and religious articles for the occasion. But there was no time to shop. The streets were already begin to fill with little "rivulets" of pilgrims, which turned into streams, which all merged into one giant "river" of people directed by the police and the Italian army. We Franciscan students were by no means in any close knit group - we all had to fend for ourselves to find a spot. I was in a group of five of students. We were able to come in sight of the dome of the basilica, although it was from the area of the Castle of St. Michael, several meters away. Here the crowds became close-knit, so we deviated into a little park by the Castle, where we situated ourselves in an area a little removed from the crowd.

Our spot for the Beatification

We weren't sure if this was our permanent spot yet, as we wanted to see if we could get to the spot where there was a screen near the castle. Joey went scouting to check it out, but when he returned he told us that the area where the screen was located was already very crowded, so we decided to stay here. We couldn't see what was going on, but we could hear it, as there was a giant sound system located a few yards to our left in the middle of the street facing the basilica. While we waited for Mass to begin (it was about 7:30 - 8 am; the Mass began at 10 am), we met two friendly Polish seminarians who spoke quite good English! They had been in Rome since Wednesday. One of them looked remarkably like Bl. John Paul II did when he was a young seminarian! There were pilgrims camped out all over - one group had even set up a full-sized tent! It appeared that the city had provided food for many of the pilgrims as there were left over apples, water bottles, and empty card board lunch boxes all over the place! It was quite a mess. While we waited, Joey and I did some studying for Christian Marriage. A couple students from our group left to see if they could get closer so they might have a better chance of venerating the relics after the Mass.

The Mass was beautiful to listen to from our spot. The music was sublime! My heart rejoiced to hear the Missa de Angelis, the sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes, and to hear Pope Benedict chant! The experience reminded me of Mass in certain ancient churches where the faithful were completely separated from the sanctuary, so they could see nothing that went on inside. The only way they knew what was going on was because of the bells and the music. Where we were situated we could sit, stand, and kneel in relative comfort, so I found myself falling asleep towards the end of the homily, which was said in Italian and thus more or less incomprehensible. But there were a few words I did understand: "John Paul II is beatified." The emotion in the pope's voice as he said those words was worth not understanding the rest of the homily, which we could read on our own later.

Mass didn't end until around 12:30. We didn't have to be back at the buses until 7:30 that evening, so we had a few hours to explore the city. There was adoration and confessions in a few select churches around the area, so after helping our third companion, Dorothy, find her way to the religious goods store Soprani's, Joey and I went back to the park where we had been situated for Mass to finish lunch, which meant finishing up the left-over fruit Joey had left in his backpack. We then set out to find the basilica of St. John Florentine, which lay on the other side of the Tiber right near the water's edge, so it wasn't too far into "enemy territory." But first Joey wanted to see if we could get into the arms of St. Peter's Square one last time. We made our way to the square at a leisurely pace, strolling down the street which opened up into the square. Soon we could see the beautiful tapestry of John Paul II hanging from the balcony of the basilica, which harkened back memories for me of being here in the Square for Bl. Teresa of Calcutta's beatification several years ago. 

The street was a mess of newspapers, pamphlets, water bottles and left over food. It looked as if a herd of giant hamsters had invaded the city! As we walked we found a small schola or choir singing words to the melody of O Sacred Head Surrounded in one of the colonnades of the buildings bordering the street. They sounded quite good, so I put a euro in the choir director's hat. From one appreciative musician to another!

The Choir!

There was a barricade preventing us from entering into the actual arms of the colonnade surrounding the square, so we didn't quite make it in, but we got as close as we could under the circumstances. Our plans foiled and readjusted, we went to find the Basilica of St. John Florentine. Joey had mentioned after Soprani's that he would like to get gelato at some point. Approaching the basilica we found a little cafe with a sign for gelato, so we stopped to enjoy some gelato at one of the tables outside. I had a raspberry flavored gelato cone, Joey a cappuccino flavored one, and we enjoyed the warm weather, the cold sugary treat, and good conversation. Then we continued on our way.

Sadly, adoration was just ending when we arrived, but a priest came up to the podium and announced in Italian that they were going to be saying the Rosary, followed by Mass, so Joey and I stayed for the Rosary, which was said in Italian and French. 

St. John Florentine!

After the rosary, we went church-hopping through the streets of Rome. We returned to the square where Bernini's fountain of The Four Rivers is located, and on which is also located St. Agnes' Church. The square was bustling with tourists and street performers, from break dancers to magicians to people dressed as statues. We found another church on the square that we hadn't visited the last time we were here, but sadly Mass had just begun so we didn't go inside. We returned to Agnes' Church, venerated her relics in the side chapel, and admired the general splendor of the nave from the statues of St. Agnes and St. Sebastian to the organ pipes located above the main entrance.

St. Agnes

My last photo of a European organ... so sad! But it seems a beautiful little instrument!

We had noted two other churches on our way to the square, so we backtracked to check them out. But these were both locked. The third church we stumbled upon though was open, and what's more, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was taking place! There was even a priest saying confession, but we  were afraid he only spoke Italian, so neither of us went. Adoration was beautiful though. The Church housed an image of the Black Madonna, had a side altar on the left side dedicated to St. Josemaria Escriva which displayed a beautiful image of the Spanish priest. On the right side was the most beautiful statue of St. Padre Pio I had ever seen.

Padre Pio!

They closed Adoration with Benediction, after which they began celebrating Mass, so we left, but not before hearing the first verse of the opening hymn, which was a variation of the German hymn Christ ist Erstanden in Italian. Very cool! This hymn is a variation on the Easter sequence. On the way out, I noticed a small case containing a few relics from the newly Blessed John Paul II: a stole, a few other vestments, and one of his white caps (the proper name escapes me at the moment)! 

It was nearing the time when we would have to be back to the bus, so we slowly meandered back in the direction of our rendezvous point. We went to take one last look at St. Peter's Basilica, strolled along the edge of the Tiber River, then stopped again at St. John Florentine's since we were in the neighborhood. We trailed a Dominican in his awesome black cape for part of the way there. ;-) Lo and behold, Mass in English was being said when we entered the basilica! It was nearing Communion, so Joey and I stayed for the end of Mass and received the Eucharist. We lingered at the church for a few more minutes after Mass ended and I spotted a small side chapel toward the back of the church with an image of Our Lady giving the Rosary to St.s Dominic and Catherine. ^_^ 

We had to hurry to get back to the bus, but we made it in plenty of time! It had been a beautiful day, full of graces! On a lesser note though, it was nice to have a free day to see a bit of Rome instead of cramming fifteen churches into a half hour on one of our crazy tours when we were here in March!

This weekend was a sweet conclusion to the pilgrimages of the semester, a semester filled with Bl. John Paul II. We experienced his beloved homeland of Poland, walking the streets of Krakow and his birthplace of Wadowice, seeing the churches where he served and said Mass, eating Pope cake, seeing the university where he studied the arts. We studied his great book Love and Responsibility in our Christian Marriage class. In Art Appreciation we read his Letter to Artists, which was a profound experience for me as a musician/artist. Then we concluded the semester with this great event in Church history, John Paul II's beatification! Thus, the semester was inlaid with his spirit, it seemed. Bl. John Paul II, pray for us!