Jubilee Pilgrimage Part 1: Rome and the Vatican

I hardly know how to begin, so I'll start with...the beginning.  On the morning of Monday, May 22, 2000, approximately 50 choristers and as many supporters left the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center in Lawrence bound for Rome and places beyond.  My first international flight, on Royal Dutch Airlines from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, was quite an experience.  There wasn't too much leg room (or any room for that matter) on the plane but the food was rather good and there was plenty of it.  Even though we were leaping ahead seven hours and it was advisable to get some rest on the flight because we were going to leap into Tuesday without breaking, I found it hard to sleep both because I was on a plane after all and I also was afraid if I fell asleep I might miss some good stuff.  We arrived in Rome early Tuesday afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Domius Mariae, especially designed for pilgrimages I think (simple rooms albeit nice bathrooms, chapel nicer than the Catholic church in Beloit).  After check-in we were taken on a tour of Rome, which included my first ride on a subway.  We saw such sights as the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon, the only ancient Roman ruin that I made it to.  The Pantheon was a temple later converted to a Christian church; a few popes are buried there I believe.
  After the tour some guy tried to give us a lecture about the Sistine Chapel, but by this point I had been awake for more than 30 hours and I just couldn't fight sleep anymore.  So I slept through that, managed to stay awake for rehearsal, then collapsed on my bed.  The next morning we took the subway to St. Peter's Square for our papal audience.  Walking into St. Peter's Square was truly amazing; words cannot describe it.  About 80,000 people gathered in the square for the audience; we were towards the front of the group.  When John Paul II appeared, he rode around the square amidst deafening cheers, then sat down in front of the doors of St. Peter's.  He spoke mainly in Italian at first, then various cardinals took turns introducing various groups that had made the pilgrimage to the Vatican that day according to the language they spoke; first Italian, then French, then English.  When our group was introduced, we stood up and sang a 45-second song our director wrote specifically for the occasion, Tu es Petrus (You Are Peter).  According to people in our group who were watching, after our song the Holy Father raised his hand to us.  After all the groups of one language were introduced, John Paul gave a short message to them in their own language; German, Spanish, Portugese, and Polish followed English.  After a final prayer the audience ended, and probably 2 dozen couples or so lined up to be married by the pontiff.
  Later that day we were granted the opportunity to be the choir for a mass at St. Peter's.  To enter the holiest basilica of Christianity is quite an experience.  There is enough room for 60,000 people to worship inside; the Papal Altar sits above the tomb of St. Peter (perhaps) in the middle.  Our mass took place at the chair altar in the back of the church.  The mass was in Italian with quite a few cardinals (I presume) presiding.  We got an English-speaking cardinal when we took communion (to think that I've taken communion from a cardinal at St. Peter's, wow).  After mass we returned to our hotel for supper and rehearsal; which reminds me, here is our typical meal at the Domius Mariae.  At the table when we sat down were bottles of carbonated water (ick, if you wanted plain ol' H2O you had to ask for "agua no gas"), huge hard rolls (which were hollow so they didn't contain as much bread as you thought), fresh fruit that served as dessert, and Italian salad for which the dressing was up to you to concoct out of the oil and vinegar provided (I passed on that).  First a pasta course would be served, and then a meat and vegetables course.  All in all it was, well, ok.  From what I've heard, Spain would have been worse.
  Thursday, May 25.  Early in the morning we hopped the metro to the Vatican museums--first on our itinerary was the Sistine Chapel.  I had seen pictures of it before but to actually gaze upon Michaelangelo's masterpieces was awesome.  Cruise the net and you're sure to find pictures of it somewhere; I can't really describe it.  Our tour guide Luigi (whose most common phrase was "Follow Luigi!  Follow Luigi!") took us around the museums and libraries and showed us many works of art and treasures (aside: giving one an idea as to just how rich the Church is).  After the Vatican it was time to load the buses to Orvieto, a hilltop town about 2 hours from Rome.  We passed some beautiful scenery on the way to this town that doesn't look like it has changed much since medieval times, except for the cars that now travel through its narrow streets.  Legend has it that several hundred years ago a priest was celebrating mass near Orvieto when the communion host started to bleed.  The blood was absorbed by a cloth that now rests in the cathedral of Orvieto, which was constructed mainly to house the relic.  We sang for a mass in this cathedral and also gave our first real concert afterwards; it drew quite a few locals that really enjoyed it.  I played my clarinet here for a Mozart piece, but that did not go too well as I was far away from the director and choir and could not follow along very well.  That evening we ate in a pizzeria where I sampled a real Italian 4-cheese pizza; it was quite delicious.
  And so we come to Friday, May 26.  Our first stop on this day was the Catacombs of St. Calixtus, the largest Christian catacombs in Rome. They were begun in the days of Roman persecution and used until the 9th century; for a time it was the official Church cemetery; several popes were buried there.  No bodies remain today, as the ones that were not victims of grave robbers were removed by archaeologists and church authorities some time ago (I'm not sure when).  As we descended into the catacombs one of the first sights was a small chapel that was at one time so beautiful it was called the Little Vatican; time and an earthquake have diminished its aesthetics.  At this sight in the early days of the Church a pope was celebrating mass when Roman soldiers raided the chapel and executed the pope, leaving the other Christians present to be horrified at the act.  Further into the depths were many tombs, dug in layers six or seven deep.  The corridors were tall and narrow; it was not a place for the claustrophobic.  St. Cecilia, patron saint of music, was buried there; today there is a statue depicting her resting in her tomb.  The place was eerie yet awe-inspiring, and was one of my favorite locales in Rome (of course, that's probably because I didn't get to see the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, or the Forum.).
  As part of the Jubilee Year, no pilgrimage to Rome would be complete without visiting the 4 papal basilicas, and so I did this on Friday with a small group.  In addition to St. Peter's on Wednesday, we also visited St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul's (allegedly containing the tomb of the traveling disciple himself).  Each cathedral was truly beautiful; again, to fully appreciate it you'd have to see pictures.  We also saw the Scala Santa (Holy Steps), which, so legend says, are the steps Jesus walked on when he was being tried that were somehow transported from Jerusalem to Rome.  That night we sang in San Lorenzo (St. Lawrence, our sister church) in Rome; not a huge basilica but an interesting locale nonetheless.  The altar rests above the tombs of St. Lawrence, St. Stephen, and St. Justin, and Pope Pius IX is buried behind the altar.  We didn't draw a very large audience for this concert, but a monk that was there loved it and deeply wanted us to return.
  So ended the first leg of our journey.  Early the next morning we loaded the bus and departed for the airport.  Destination: Prague.

On to Part 2 of my Europe excursion.

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