Deadly light shades
September 18, 2008
To the avid follower I owe an apology for not writing anything yesterday. The truth be known it wasn’t that there was nothing to write about, it was that I got distracted during the day and didn’t have a photo!
The temperatures have dropped significantly and quickly here in Rome. When first arriving it was so hot at night that people were saying they slept on top of the bed. They are now saying that they are under a sheet and some have even used to using another layer too. The locals are really enjoying the night time temperatures because after some months of really hot weather they are finding it easier to sleep. It seems as though the temperatures have dropped around 10 degrees in about a week! Daytime temperatures are mid 20’s and very pleasant I must say.
Going back a couple of days, Wednesday began with a Mass in the chapel here at the General House all in French! It came as a surprise and once again made us aware of how difficult it is for those in our group first whose first language is something other than English.
Wednesday was dedicated to examining the “Missionary” influence on Jean-Claude Colin and we spent some time studying the Office for the Evangelisation of Peoples, formerly known as “Propaganda Fide.” Because this was an office and we weren’t going into a church, it was mentioned that we didn’t need to wear our long trousers. Matt Morris, who is a keen wearer of shorts had already decked himself up in his longs. He thought of changing but decided against it saying that “I’ll save my knees for the General Administration in the afternoon.” A reference to our meeting that we had with them later on in the day.
Thursday was again another venture into the city to once again emphasise the importance of missions in Jean-Claude Colin’s thinking. Our focus today was on the relationship with Bishop Pompallier and we visited the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
As well as the Church, we also took the time to visit the much celebrated cemetery of the Capuchins.
Originally in their Constitutions or Rule, the Capuchins were promised that they’d be buried in the Holy Land. When this was no longer feasible, earth from the Holy Land was shipped to this cemetery under the Church of the Immaculate Conception and they were buried there. However when this space got full, their remains were disinterred to permit the burial of new Friars the bones now decorate the walls and combine to make static displays! There at some stage must have been lots of Capuchins because the cemetry has several rooms each with a different display emphasis! Most rooms however have heads, and some have full skeletons of monks still dressed in their habits. There’s also a section for hip bones another for femurs and so on. Not being a medical student at all it’s hard to identify all the bones, more particularly when they’ve been combined and used a light shades!
It’s evidently considered a great honour to be buried here however I wouldn’t be using it for vocations promotion, and in fairness to the Capuchins wanted to close the cemetry for public viewing, however the City of Rome wouldn’t allow it. There were streams of people going through.
Moving on.
The usual drill is that after attending to our work in the morning, we head off home for dinner in the middle of the day. It may not seem that we are packing lots into our sorties, that is doing several things before coming home again, however the combination of being home for dinner at 12:30pm, the Rome transport system and traffic, particularly the later, puts a fairly tight constraint on things. It’s also easy to be swallowed up by what’s going on in Rome, so in a sence the coming home for lunch, the traffic and transport system does us a service and brings a certain focus to our interest.
This is a very well organised pilgrimage of Marist places and most days we time our arrival home pretty much to perfection; that is in time to have cooling drink before lunch. However today it all went wrong. Not any fault of our own, but it is an example of what can happen in Rome and why our journeys into the city are for specific purposes.
For some reason today there was a protest rally down down town which meant that as well as attracting a good number of extra people to central city, two streets were also blocked by the Police. Bedlham. A trip that might have been ordinarily 15 minutes ‘quickly’ became 45. The locals were getting irate and wanted the driver to open the doors, but the bus had been directed “off route” and he was only allowed to let passengers off at bus stops. Compounding the issue was the bus was quite full and the physical temperature inside was getting warmer. People too were “heating up”. An awkward situation all round relieved when the doors were finally opened. The locals shouted jubilantly and for a split-moment some Marist Pilgrims and the locals were “as one”.
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