Between rescuing Terrapins in the
Vatican Gardens and consuming our collective body weights in pizza and ice
cream – the interns managed to make it to some pretty fascinating meetings
in Rome over the last few days.
 |
| Dominic, Lucy, Matthew, Michaela and Stephen in front of Trevi Fountain |
Arriving on Friday night, the weekend
was spent sight-seeing and sheltering from the rain as the forecasted sunshine
and showers prevailed. On Sunday morning we found ourselves surrounded by a
great deal of pomp and ceremony at the annual swearing-in of the new Swiss
Guards. We quickly combated this cultural expereince with a healthy dose of
English premiership football in an ‘Irish Pub’ just off Piazza Navona as the
downpour continued outside.
Our official itinerary kicked off
on Monday morning with a visit to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
– previously know, amongst other things, as the Spanish Inquisition. The job of
the CDF is to identify heresy, and act on it. This is a lengthy and heavily
bureaucratic process revolving around meetings and letter writing. Mgr Patrick
Burke gave us a detailed history of how the Congregation came to be in its
present form and showed us some 15th century manuscripts of
investigations, in the small library that remains in the CDF today, the rest of
the collection being housed in the ‘Secret Library’ or the archive under the
CDF. We all appreciated Mgr Patrick’s frankness about the most sensitive and
challenging issues facing the Church today and were impressed with his
directness and unswerving belief in the importance of consistency and truth.
 |
| In the Cardinal's Room at the CDF |
From the CDF we jumped in taxis
and headed to the English College where English seminarians are training in
Rome. Two previous interns, Peter
Stoddart and Luke DePulford are currently students there and sat in on our
meeting with Associated Press journalist Nicole Winfeld. Nicole is the Vatican
correspondent for one of the major global news wires, from where most other
news stations get their information. She has been in Rome for 10 years but it
neither she nor the Vatican have endeared themselves to one another.
After this particularly disheartening
meeting, we were given a tour of the English College by Fr John Paul who is the
Pastoral Director there. He then celebrated Mass for us in the larger of the College’s
two stunning chapels.
 |
| Chapel in the English College |
In the afternoon we visited the
HQ of Caritas Internationalis. Michel Roy, the Secretary General, spoke to us
about his role and the pros and cons of working for a faith organisation in the
world of international aid and development.
The first day had been a long one
and we were all more than ready for dinner that evening, at which Peter and
Luke joined us again to tell us about their experience of Seminary life and of
their time as Catholic Parliamentary Interns.
(Photos/ footage to come!)
No comments:
Post a Comment