Travel

Rome sweet Home- What is the best time to visit St Peter’s Basilica?

Visiting St Peter’s Basilica can often end up being a nightmare, far from the romanticized photographs and images that are shown; that is if you visit it during the peak season or at the wrong time in the day. My first visit to St. Peter’s was at the end of October; the hordes of tourists had left as the summer break was over. It was easier to get in and move around.

St Peter’s Basilica takes your breath away one way or the other. Built atop a 4th-century church, it was consecrated in 1626 and took 120 years to complete. However what most certainly dampens one’s enthusiasm, is the long serpentine queues to get in, and these can suck the life out of you, if you happen to visit Rome during summer. I guess it was my desire to pray that helped me discover how to beat those awful lines. I just landed up at opening time.

While the door of St Peter’s opens at seven a.m., the Eucharist is celebrated at seven fifteen and eight a.m. all through the Basilica. If you arrive at six thirty a.m. you will still have to contend with a queue at security albeit a smaller one. When visiting St Peter’s you must keep in mind that a strict dress code for men and women is in place (no shorts, miniskirts or bare shoulders) and security requirements are similar to those at any airport.

St Peter’s is a parish church with Mass celebrated daily. Morning masses (watch out for the Wednesday and Sunday schedules) are mostly celebrated by priests accompanying pilgrim groups and one is instantly mesmerized listening to the number of languages emanating from several altars of St Peter’s at which the Eucharist is celebrated .

If you don’t have a priest with you on your pilgrimage and are traveling as a small group, simply join the Eucharist at any one of the altars. You would need to indicate to the usher that you wish to attend mass, or you might be mistaken for an early morning tourist and turned away.

If your group wishes to celebrate the Eucharist with your touring priest or with a priest you happen to know from your country, now studying or ministering in Rome, you will need to write in and book; but do this well in advance. While larger groups are permitted to celebrate mass on the main level of St Peter’s, smaller groups are permitted the use of the altars in the crypt (Grottoes) where the Popes are buried, like the Clementine Chapel which holds approximately ten people.

This chapel has a door to the left which takes one down to the Scavi where the bones of St Peter were found or the  chapel of the “Madonna della Bocciata”. In this chapel is a fresco by the 14th century Roman painter Pietro Cavallini. It is called the “Madonna della Bocciata”, because of Mary’s swollen face. According to an old legend, her face bled because a drunken soldier had thrown a bowl into the holy image after he lost a game of bowls.

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Faith

We are no gods! Monday, 5th week of Easter- Acts 14:5-18

The story of rejection continues for Paul and Barnabas. Driven out of Antioch of Pisidia, they now make their way to Iconium (Turkey), seventy miles southeast of Antioch by the Sebastian way. This was the main route that connected Ephesus (in Turkey) with Syria and Mesopotamia. While Iconium was a melting pot of races and cultures, it was predominantly Hellenized (Greek culture) but now under Roman rule. Together, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe all which find mention in chapter 14, are the cities of South Galatia (not to be confused with Paul’s letter to the Galatians to whom he wrote and who lived in the North of Galatia around modern day Ankara, Turkey).

What happened in the synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia happens also in the synagogue of Iconium. Paul and Barnabas always encounter receptivity and resistance. They took their message first to the Jews in the synagogue, only to be kicked out by those jealous of them, or as in this case, those who were unbelieving. They were not quitters for we are told they stayed back in spite of the opposition; yet in this case they had to flee, for a plot had been hatched to stone them to death. Though they fled Iconium, we know that after some time they returned, so there must have been some believers there.

Going further south they land up in Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia. It is in Lystra that they are preaching; not in a synagogue but now on the streets, to a people who have never heard of the God of Israel. While Lystra did not have a synagogue, we know it had Jewish people, for it was the home town of Timothy who had a Jewish mother (Acts 16:1)( St Paul’s letters to Timothy). It is here in a narration similar to the one we read in the opening chapters of Acts 9:32-35, that Paul and Barnabas, like Peter, heal a lame man. The consequences of this healing in a Gentile land are quite different.

The people, we are told break in to a frenzied response thinking Paul and Barnabas to be the Greek Gods Zeus and Hermes (Mercury)! Everyone including the temple priest of Zeus seems to be in on the act, for we are told he brings oxen and garlands to the gates of the city where Paul is. It is a wonder that Paul and Barnabas broke through in their understanding of this religious outpouring in spite of what should have been their apparent lack of the local language.

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Travel

 

Rome sweet home – A pilgrim’s guide.

There is no place like Rome; for me it’s Rome sweet home  not merely because of my Catholic faith but even more because every inch of this city has played a great part in both secular and religious history. Sadly most tourists who tell you they have visited the city have seen very little of it especially those who come in on an eighteen days, six country whirlwind trip (eighteen days includes your flights to and fro and in all probability, five days sitting in a bus)

So what’s left for the Catholic pilgrim to see especially if you are party to such ‘profit oriented’ pilgrim trips? Most of these groups end up arriving in Rome on a Tuesday night and are settled well outside the walls of Rome. Tour operators don’t want to cut their profits and so while they tell you that you are visiting Rome or Paris you must factor this truth, that you will not be in a hotel room looking down the Champs-Élysées or the Via della Conciliazione gazing at the Vatican but be settled in some distant suburb of the city. (End of day one in Rome)

The morning after your arrival (Wednesday) sees you ushered into a bus for the Papal Audience. By the time you reach the Vatican one third of your ‘day two’ is already over. The rest of the better part of the papal audience will see you seated at some considerable distance from the Holy Father and after the papal blessing you will be ushered by your tour leader through a rapid half hour tour, pushing your way through a sea of humanity (most of whom come to the audience) to be given some mundane information about a magnificent structure whose construction began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626. I once overheard a tour guide in the Vatican refer to the body of St John the XXIII as “another dead Pope.”

By day three you would have seen the Vatican museum (and missed out its gems ) and the Sistine Chapel                  (with a poor explanation of the same in the Belvedere court) and half a dozen tourist spots that are sold as ‘must see’ by your tour operator. By the end of day if not mid-day, most Indian tour operators will see you packing to the airport, if Rome was your last stop (which usually it is) or onward to  the city of Florence                    ( rarely because it’s expensive) or to Assisi or Venice.

So am I here to castigate the Tour operators? I would say yes and no for it is also a matter of perception that is fed and willingly swallowed by pilgrims who put in a substantial amount of their savings in a ‘once in a life time trip’. The problem begins when pilgrims are dazzled with the words on the brochure, “European trip covering five or six nation”. Pilgrims think that if they ‘see more countries’ and places then they are done and dusted in one go and while you do get to see your favourite Marian shrines you are also obliged to see many other place that you are least interested.  Tour operators continue to feed on this desire, offering most of the while brochures that have a slew of places, most of which do not include an entry fee and are often seen seated in a bus ( especially big cities)

In these series of articles on Rome and Italy, I want to offer the pilgrims, especially those from India traveling to Rome, options they can place before the tour operator to tailor their pilgrimage to the pilgrims need. I dare say that most operators will turn these down because they are not profitable for business or alternatively they will present the pilgrim with an astronomical cost (but try your luck and smile knowing I said so). While I acknowledge that Rome is no cheap city to visit, I find a great deal of dishonestly in what the pilgrim is offered especially when it comes to the Rome section of the pilgrimage.

My articles come from four personal trips that I have made to Rome, trips that I have planned by myself. It will offer you not only the must see of Rome and the Vatican but also valuable information that you need to have as a pilgrim. It is my hope, that at some stage the pilgrims to Rome will be more discerning in asking questions, than be left with some half-baked information of what they were made to see, much less of what they should have seen but were never told.

 I know there are honest tour operators out there and these need to be willing to take a hit and offer better pilgrimages. To the pilgrims I say this, be realistic and read both, the fine print and the bold print that is offered to you.  Don’t be dazzled by the fact that you’re going to Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Paris and Rome (besides the cities in these countries that are ‘offered to you,’ for in reality you are merely being ferried across a nation with a mid-day stop, which by the way has ‘a site of some religious importance’ and not one that you were enthusiastic to see.

Fr Warner D’Souza

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Art/ Heritage

SUNDAY WITH A SAINT: ‘The Finding of the Body of Saint Mark’ by Tintoretto (1562)

 It was a cold moonless night. Below the gloomy sky two figures hurried through the town, making their way to the harbour. They dragged along a cart and boarded it onto a ship. As the sea winds beat against the sails, the men strived harder to get the cargo onboard. Finally they succeeded.  The ship set sail to Venice where the still lagoon silently awaited its crest. The Egyptian town of Alexandria knew not what she lost for beneath the layers of pork and cabbage lay the most precious relic – The body of St. Mark the Evangelist!

The Evangelist Mark never met the historical Christ, yet he was one of the most important figures to preach Christ in the 1st century AD. It is rumoured that Mark was baptized by St. Peter. He was appointed Bishop of Aquileia in north east Italy. He often travelled by boat around the islands that surrounded Aquileia which was soon to become Venice. Legend states that on one such journey an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Peace to you, Mark my Evangelist. Here will your body rest’ This prophecy was adopted as an anthem for the Venetian state.

On Peter’s advice Mark is said to have travelled to Egypt. He became the first Bishop of Alexandria. However in 68 AD on Easter day he was arrested and dragged through the streets until death. His followers buried him with great respect in the Church in town.

Centuries later, in 828 AD, two Venetian merchants discovered that the Khalif of Alexandria was planning to destroy the Church. They persuaded the priest to let them take the relics of St. Mark to Venice. They replaced his relics with that of St. Claudia, a less eminent Saint. They placed the body of St. Mark in a chest and covered it with a layer of pork and cabbage. The Muslim officials on inspecting cried out ‘Kanzir, Kanzir’ (Oh horror). Thus the merchants succeeded in conveying to Venice the pristine object that changed its character and status.

The episodes on the life of St. Mark were eventually featured in various works of art. Today’s painting in consideration illustrates one such episode. Executed by the Mannerist artist Tintoretto, the painting was commissioned by Tommaso Rangone, the ‘grand guardian’ of the Scuola di San Marco in Venice. Not surprisingly, Rangone features conspicuously in the center at the foreground. Garbed in rich golden brocade, he gestures down to the trophy i.e. the body of St. Mark.

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Faith

Closed door, open window – Saturday, 4th Week in Easter- Acts 13:44-52

We are in Antioch of Pisidia, modern day Turkey, and Paul and Barnabas have just completed preaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The message of these two missionaries hit home hard, for we are told that “people begged that these things might be told to them the next Sabbath” and that “many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas.”

The next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered together at the synagogue and Paul and Barnabas came to preach at the invitation of the people. For a preacher who truly wants to promote the word of God and not just himself, such an audience must have been a delight. But what delights one, may only bring jealousy to another.

The Jews, on seeing the multitudes, were filled with jealousy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul and reviled him. We are not told who these Jews were but I strongly suspect they were the leaders of the synagogue. I was once told by a fellow priest to watch out for clerical jealousy (come on, the clergy are not spared of Satan’s traps). In cautioning me he said, “Clerical jealousy is deadly, it goes for the jugular.” This is something I have never forgotten for its reality has been experienced by me.

Jealousy was not only the prerogative of the Jews in Antioch of Pisidia, for the same word appears even in the opening chapters of Acts in response to the healing and preaching brought about by Peter and the Apostles. It is jealousy that satan uses to destroy the Church from within, and he often uses the most unsuspecting characters. In this case he used the Jewish leaders who poisoned the minds of the “the women of prominence who were worshipers and the leading men of the city.” Think of this as equivalent of our daily mass going women and the parish council, and you will recognise that the potential of causing confusion by poisoning such minds is deadly enough to cause immense damage!

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