It is possible to get almost any Mass or liturgy of your choice in Rome. Extraordinary Form Mass, Eastern Rite Liturgies and Ordinary Form Masses in any significant Catholic language are all there. However, commitment to any one variety of these on a daily basis will limit your experience of the city. And Rome isn't just another city. It is The City.
Our first call on the morning of 30 October was to the chapel on the Campo Santo Teutonico. This is the German cemetery in Rome, which is right beside St Peter's Basilica. The cemetery has been there since the time of Charlemagne, so "German" is applied broadly to the German-speaking world, which is Germany, Austria, German Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol, German-speaking regions in Belgium and Alsace, even including Flemings and Dutch. It is the only land in the Vatican State not owned by the Vatican State (because it's owned by the Italian State) and it's administered by the Confraternity of Our Lady of the Germans and Flemings. There are two German seminaries in Rome, the German-Hungarian College, which is an ecclesiastical equivalent of the École Nationale d'Administration in Strasbourg; and the Teutonic College, which is here. On most days of the week, Mass is celebrated in German, but it is in Latin on Wednesdays and Italian on Saturdays. To get there from our flat meant crossing an international border, with Italian police, Pontifical Gendarmes and Swiss Guard on duty. For us, the sight of Swiss Guardsmen is welcome as most of them speak German, though I have to say most Italian and Vatican police speak English too. To cross this border, you pass through a security check not unlike one at the airport.
We got into the chapel at the Campo Santo just as Mass began and as there were two German pilgrimage groups there, there was little space. Mass was very ordered and dignified, but this is typical rather than atypical of German liturgy and it is not an ideological marker as it might be in the US or in Ireland. On the other hand, Irish or US congregations would not see a very folksy celebrant as necessarily being a theological liberal, as German parishes might. I know that US Conservative Catholic publications have predicted an imminent schism with the German Church, but this is far from being the full story. I don't believe there is an enormous gap between parish life in the US or Germany or Ireland, but I do believe that radically different dynamics and different expectations exist within these churches. In the German Church, this relates to the Kirchesteuer which supports a huge bureaucracy. As Germans formally leave the Church, the tax base goes down. The amount coming in has been rising, but eventually there will be a fall. These people fear for the future in a manner that reminds me of the the stewart in Luke 16, 1-13, to dig they are not strong enough, to beg they are ashamed. So they want to re-write their clients' accounts to save their necks. Except they have made the wrong call. Their pitch is to people with little use for the Church regardless of what changes are made, while alienating the most serious of Catholics and annoying everybody registered as a Catholic everytime they look at the 8-9% of their tax going to the Church.
Following the Mass, one of the priests of the Teutonic College gave an interesting talk on the history of the college and cemetery. There has been a constant German presence in Rome since at least the 800s and this graveyard, small as it is, represents this. Germans flocked here with pilgrims from all over Europe. Even the Reformation put no dent in it. But it seems that one of the proudest boasts was about the activities in the Teutonic College during the war. About 6,000 people were sheltered there, especially during the Nazi occupation of Rome. The driving force behind this was a priest resident at the college, but he was not a native German-speaker. He was Irish. The famous Mgr Hugh O'Flaherty who is commemorated in the cemetery and was the subject of a Gregory Peck film. Following the talk we walked around the graveyard.
We wanted to visit St Peter's. At this stage my advice to you is to try to arrive between 7 and 9 in the morning, but be that as it may. As we left Campo Santo at around 11.30, crowds were already gathering for the Angelus. Seeing the Pope wasn't an objective for us, but my advice to people who would like to see the Pope is this. I would research the Papal schedule online in advance. If there was a papal ceremony, for example a canonisation, during your visit, I would get tickets to this. These are available from the papal household and if there is a face value, it is nominal. If there isn't, general audiences take place every Wednesday and it is possible to see the Pope at these. Again, tickets are available, but this is more a booking exercise. If you are looking to see the Pope without any prior arrangement, you can show up at the Angelus at 12 noon on Sunday. Many people did and we had to make our way to the left hand side of the steps of the basilica to find it was exit only. We attended the Angelus and heard the Pope's voice (and saw his hand giving the blessing). There were quite a number of people there. He got a cheer.
Getting out was difficult. Now, one of our sons is a very fussy eater and from time to time, the only way we can get him to eat is to go to McDonalds. I know that Italy is centre of some of the finest cuisine in the world, but this is of no avail. Fortunately (or rather unfortunately), there is a McDonalds close to St Peter's Basilica. The trouble is when we got there, it seemed as if most of the people at the Angelus beat us to it (we did recognise several faces). Some seemed to have very complicated orders. But we got served in the end. Not that I partook. Then we were free to walk around Rome.
So we turned toward the Castel Sant'Angelo and then crossed the Tiber. We walked around the Piazza Navona, which was crowded on a warm day. Later we found the Pantheon, but could not go in as it required booking in advance on weekends and on public holidays (1 November, for example, is an Italian public holiday). Once again, the area was crowded. We eventually found Er Faciolaro, which had been recommended to us, but it was a bit disappointing. Later we reached the Trevi Fountain, which was equally crowded. On our way to the Spanish Steps, we stopped in the church of Madonna del Pozzo (the Madonna of the Well) where visitors are invited to drink water from a miraculous well.
Following a glorious sunset viewed from the Spanish Steps, accompanied by Italian café music played by a Bavarian brass ensemble, we went back to the Piazza Navona and visited St Agnes, which is a glorious church. After some more wandering, we reached the Gesú, the Jesuit mother church where we went to the tomb of St Ignatius Loyola. This was impressive, until we got to some more impressive tombs over the following days. Following that, we took some ice cream and then walked slowly towards our apartment. Tired and planning the following day.
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