Oh Brother
September 25, 2008
Today’s activities couldn’t be more further apart a visit to the Catacombs of St Callistus and then later in the evening, joining the Community of St Egidio at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. One a statement of ancient Christendom the other an expression of modern day Christian life.
The Catacombs of St Callistus are four levels deep and are some 20km long. Over the years there have been around 500,000 people buried here. This is sacred ground, space that commands respect, it’s also a place where it’s easy to get lost. People are therefore not let lose in the Catacombs and we were provided with an Indian guide to provide commentary and a person in “mufti” that followed up the rear and made sure we all stuck together.
Among the signs displayed prominently around Catacombs is one that says “No Photographs” and to make the point even stronger it has a picture of a camera with a big red cross through it. The truth be known this is Italy, the only place I know where rules are as flexible as they come, where, for example, there are very few lanes marked in the road because the Italians wouldn’t know what they meant for, it’s a place where people park their cars all day in 2 hour parking zones and across pedestrian crossings or even in the middle of the street while they nip into the store! So when you see a sign that says no photographs, one doesn’t get too worried by it. Least that’s Bernardo’s view of things, an experienced burglar of photos in all sorts of venues where in the Roman sense photos are forbidden. So for example he has several photos of John Paul II’s tomb, one or two from the Sistine Chapel, and some from the Capuchin Crypt with all the bones.
Bernardo says that he needs only three things for the pilgrimage, Bible, Rosary Beads and Camera, the later being his journal. The entry for 25 September 2008 however will have to register a blank.
By making sure he was at the end of the line and turning the flash on the camera off, Bernardo thought he’d be ok to sneak a couple of shots, but the crafty Fijian photographer proved no match for cunning Indian tour guide as out the corner of the tour guide’s eye Bernardo was spotted, and from the depths of Catacombs we heard… “Brother, I say Brother, there are no photographs Brother. Ah, Brother, did you hear me Brother?”
There are special moments on a pilgrimage and this was one of them, and from the time we parted company with our guide, the trip home was riddled with reminders for Bernardo, who in turn entered into the fray and loved every moment of it. Yes there may be a gap in Bernardo’s journal for the morning of September 25, but I’m sure he’ll remember the Catacombs in Rome.
The evening was a tad more sober, visiting the community of St Egidio for their evening prayer. The St Egidio community is a global lay community with over 50,000 members, and while made this visit special is because the community gets its name from the Church of Sant ‘Egidio Trastevere in Rome. We did not however visit the original Church, it’s no longer used by the community for evening prayer because the numbers coming are too large, instead they use the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, just 25 meters down the road. The Basilica itself is of interest because it is one of the oldest churches in Rome, perhaps the first in which mass was openly celebrated. Although rebuilt in the 12th Century, the basic floor plan and wall structure of the church date back to the 340s AD.
The experience of the evening prayer aside, what also interested was that it was “religiously” kept to 30 minutes, because it is broadcast, and so for example on this particular night the sermon was a little long, so the final hymn had to be omitted… Parish priests of the world please note.
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