Travel

Rome sweet home (4)- How do I get to see the Pope?

Even though I had scheduled this article way down on the list, I can sense from the number of mails that this, for obvious reasons, is number one on the list of most Catholics visiting the Vatican. So let’s just address the issue.

Besides certain public celebrations of the Eucharist for which you need a pass, the Holy Father also makes two public appearances each week if he is in the Vatican. It is advisable to check the Vatican website and check the Holy Father’s public schedules. Simply use the link http://www.vatican.va/various/prefettura/en/udienze_en.html

Once you are certain that the Holy Father is in the Vatican you have a choice of seeing him on a Sunday or Wednesday. Both these audiences are free so don’t get conned by anyone trying to sell you a ticket and trust me Rome is full of them, some masquerading as priests and nuns.

The most popular audience is the one held every Wednesday. In summer this is held in the Piazza (St Peters square) and in winter in the Paul VI Audience Hall also known as the Hall of the Pontifical Audiences which seats 6,300 people. Both experiences have a charm of their own.

In order to attend the Papal audience on Wednesday you need to write in or fax the Vatican requesting for tickets. As soon as you plan your trip to Rome (and I hope that’s at least two months in advance) you should contact the prefecture of the Pontifical household. Write to:  Prefecture of the Papal Household, 00120 Vatican City State – Fax: +39 06 6988 5863. Before you write in download the form and indicate the date of the general audience or liturgical celebration (for mass), number of tickets required, name / group, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers.

Provided here is the link with the details and the form you need to download, simply fill and send. If you have special circumstances you should mention that too, for it might get you a yellow ticket permitting you to be seated in the podium area besides the Holy Father. If you are recently married in the last six months, you might even get to meet the Pope himself. You could write to the same address attaching your marriage certificate and letter from the parish priest. If you do get a response then you have to present yourself in your gown and suit. I have just applied for a couple and am now hoping we get a positive response. http://www.vatican.va/various/prefettura/en/biglietti_en.html

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Faith

Feast of Saints Philip and James

Philip: Philip came from the same town as Peter and Andrew, Bethsaida in Galilee.  In the first chapter of John’s gospel we see Jesus calling him directly. After his calling he immediately began to lead others to Christ.

His character comes across in two incidents in the Gospel, one of which is described in the Gospel reading. After his own calling he went looking for his friend Nathanael and told him about the “one about whom Moses wrote” (John 1:43-45).  Philip comes across as someone who is rather innocent and naïve and it takes him some time to acknowledge what is going on.

Like the other apostles, Philip took a long time coming to realize who Jesus was. On one occasion, when Jesus saw the great multitude following him and wanted to give them food, he asked Philip where they should buy bread for the people to eat. Saint John comments, “[Jesus] said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do” (Jn 6:6). Philip answered, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little [bit]” (Jn 6:7).

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Travel

St Peter’s; in the foreground is the Holy water stoups; in the back ground Bernini’s baldacchino and the chair of St Peter – photographed by the author

Rome sweet home (3) – St Peter’s, built in living stone.

St Peter’s Basilica is built within the walls of an independent nation called the Vatican. The Vatican gets its name from the Etruscan goddess or the guardian of the dead called Vatica. At one time the area which we now call the Vatican, was nothing more than a cemetery. The Vatican, built on one side of the river Tiber, overlooks the seven hills on which Rome was built. During the Roman era, this land was a marshy area and hence not populated. In time the the Circus of Nero was built here.

St Peter’s Basilica was built beside the Circus of Nero or Circus of Caligula. It is here that that Peter and the early Christians were martyred. Along side the circus was a cemetery where St. Peter was buried and a memorial was built. The circus itself was already abandoned by the middle of the second century AD and tombs were then built here.

Plan of Nero’s Circus and the present St Peter’s Basilica

The first Christian Emperor, Constantine, built the first St. Peter’s in the early 300 ADs over the place where it was rumoured by tradition, to be the tomb of St. Peter. He replaced the simple sanctuary of the Prince of the Apostles with a larger structure.

St. Peter’s is principally a house of worship but it means many things to many people. The structure itself is a masterpiece designed by some of the most famous names in history. The artifacts, both in the Basilica and the treasury museum, are unmatched. Its furnishings are priceless and its history embraces every floor and pillar of this place of worship.

The plan of the first St Peter’s Basilica

The old structure was torn down to build the new St. Peter’s and  construction began in 1506 and ended in 1612. It took 13 Popes and 14 architects to get this building up for worship. Pope Julius II commissioned Bramante to build a new Basilica for it was his design that won Julius II’s competition. In 1506, Julius, before 35 cardinals, laid the foundations of this enormous structure. The present structure was designed over time, principally by four men, Donato Bramante, Michaelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernin, and epitomises Renaissance architecture.

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Faith

When a council gave sound counsel – Wednesday, 5th Week of Easter – Acts 15:1-6

Paul and Barnabas have returned from their first missionary journey. As a rule they always went first to the synagogue to preach the message of Christ, as they did in Iconium and Antioch of Pisidia. But we know that in Lystra there was no synagogue and so the apostles began to preach to the people in the streets. It is here that they first minster to the Gentiles.

On returning to Antioch, they report to the whole Church that “God had opened the door of faith for the Gentiles.” As inconsequential as this statement may seem, it will be the cause of much division in the Early Church and become for Paul, a constant challenge in his ministry.

It was in Antioch, that some individuals who came down from Judea, began to teach that salvation could only be obtained through fidelity to the Law of Moses and as manifested through the act of circumcision. From Paul’s own experience of his first missionary journey, he had come to believe that one was saved by Jesus freely, and that the Mosaic Law had no role to play in salvation. It is no wonder then that he and Barnabas had “no small dissension and debate” with these individuals from Judea.

It is interesting to see how the Early Church solved their disagreements; and dare I say with a spirit that goes beyond the mere confines of what we consider democracy. We are told that in order to resolve this dispute, the Church in Antioch decided to send Paul, Barnabas and “some of the others” to Jerusalem to discuss the issue with the apostles and elders.

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Faith

Silhouette of hiking man jumping over the mountains

Faith without falter- Tuesday, 5th Week of Easter- Acts 14:19-28

I have woefully declared many times that people are more enchanted with cult, than faith from which it flows. Since cult is more tangible, we unwittingly give it more importance than the truth of faith, which is the reason for cult. The people of Lystra were so enamoured by a single miracle worked by Paul and Barnabas, that they saw them as ‘gods’ and wanted to sacrifice oxen that would be garlanded before the slaughter.

Paul wants to have none of this and prefers to profess the truth; ironically there seems to be no one enamoured now. For no sooner do the Jewish detractors of Paul arrive from Antioch and Iconium with their perverse thoughts, than the people of Lystra no longer see the truth of Paul’s words and choose to stone the very man they hailed as ‘god’ a few hours ago. Paul, as we know, does not die and instead heads for Derbe, a border town in the south-eastern part of the Lycaonian region of Galatia.

One would think that Paul wants to beg for trouble; for he traces his footsteps back to the very towns he was stoned and chased out from. He goes from Derbe to Lystra to Iconium and to Antioch. As they go, they make disciples, and through words of encouragement, “strengthened the spirits of the disciples” who must have had to face much ridicule and suffering when Paul left them often at risk to his own life.  Paul is drawing to a close to what is called the ‘first missionary journey’.

One must admire these early Christians who never gave up the faith even in the face of tremendous hardships which Paul acknowledged when he said, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”. Paul’s faith does not merely float in some unrealistic world for he knows that it must also be rooted in earthly structures. With this in mind he recognizes the need for continuity and appoints “presbyters”, a word best translated as ‘elders’.

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