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October 12, 2006 -- The journey begins
Oct. 12, 8:45 p.m. EDT -- 33,000 feet above
the Atlantic Ocean -- Our journey has begun! Bright and early this
morning our group left from Indianapolis on our way to Rome for
Mother Theodore's canonization. After a quick jaunt around the
eastern U.S. (Atlanta and New York) we were on our way to the
Eternal City. I'm traveling with the Sisters of Providence, friends
and alumnae on this eight-day pilgrimage.
It's been great to
see some of the sisters I know and meet new sisters. There are also
a lot of 'lay' people with our group. Each person has a different
tie to the Sisters of Providence. Mother Theodore means something
special to each of them.
A man sitting across
the aisle from me had a touching story to tell. On the day after
Thanksgiving several years ago he was stringing up Christmas lights
on his roof when he slipped and fell -- two stories -- and hit his
head on concrete. "For nearly a month it was touch and go," he said.
His mother and sister, who had lifelong ties to the sisters of
Providence, prayed for Mother Theodore's intercession. On Christmas
day he woke up and was able to speak to his children for the first
time since the accident. "Did [the prayers] make the difference? I
don't know," he said.
Even those who do
not believe in matters divine might agree that just devotion and
admiration of a person like Mother Theodore has healing power in and
of itself. After all, she struggled with grave illness herself and
yet established many schools, cared for the sick, and developed
healthy organization of women religious to carry on her mission to
this day.
* * *
Things are starting
to wind down here on the plane. Now would probably be a good time to
try and a little sleep before we land in the morning, 2 a.m. in
Indiana will be 8 a.m. in Rome! Goodnight, North America, good
morning Italy!
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While waiting for our flight out of
Atlanta, Katy sports fashionable "Under the Sea" glasses that she
received in a Happy Meal at the airport.
Sister Mary Montgomery smiles on the
airport tram soon after our arrival in Rome.
October 13 -- Pantheon
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October 14, 2006
-- The party gets started
Today began with a walking tour of ancient Rome. What? A walking
tour for a group of 500, more than a few of whom are elderly nuns?
No sweat, at least not for the Sisters. They handled it with no
problem. It was their younger,
lay counterparts I heard the whining from.
Ancient Rome is amazing. Their civilization is breathtaking. And so
much of it is preserved. I find it fascinating how "modern" Rome is
literally built on top of layers of the old city. Ruins are
everywhere, not just in the forum area. You can turn a corner and
see something 2,000 years old just nonchalantly sitting there as if
it were well, as new as its 500-year-old neighbors.
Saturday evening was our first "Mother Theodore" event, Vespers at
the Church of the Gesu. Wow. Thatıs all I can say. The program
consisted of a number of readings about Mother Theodoreıs life, her
writings, and words about her legacy. Between each segment artifacts
were brought up to the altar, creating a shrine. It was moving to
see the emotion shown by those
participating. As soon as the service ended chaos seemed to ensue
(well as much as can ensue inside a beautiful Baroque church).
Pilgrims from Brittany in France (where Mother Theodore was born)
made a mad dash for the altar and subsequently broke out in song,
waving their regionıs flag. Thatıs when it hit me. This was so much
bigger than I could possibly comprehend. I broke down and cried
right there, kneeling in front of them with my camera.
Unbiased reporting? Pffft. Sister Denise walked by and said
something nice to me. I cried some more.
Donıt worry, it was just a momentary thing, Iım not that emotional
after all, right?
Anyway during the singing all the other pilgrims also rushed the
altar, only they were in line to venerate Mother Theodoreıs shrine.
Pilgrims humbly said prayers and touched the artifacts.
Unfortunately they probably did a little too much touching. Mother
Theodoreıs white cross seemed decidely more broken after the
veneration than it was before and while I was standing there taking
pictures someone knocked off an award Mother Theodore received in
1837 and it fell on my foot! It didnıt break though (score one for
having giant feet!)
After Vespers it was time to get the party started. Our entire group
(thatıs 500+ donıt forget) had dinner at Quo Vadis Osteria. It was
multi-course heaven. Trust me, I eat a LOT and I couldnıt even begin
to finish all this food. Oh, and there was music too, first by a
lively group that I would describe as singing traditional Italian
songs, and then, yes, you Woodsies guessed it, by our own alums
singing the Ring Song. (For the unititiated, The Ring Song is a very
special song Woods students and alums sing at virtually all
important gatherings, in honor of the Woods ring you know the big
gold and onyx thing which bonds us all together.) It was followed
by a very touching rendition of "Our Lady of Providence" for the
Sisters. (These two groups overlap quite a bit as you might
imagine.)
After dinner it was back to the hotel for a very few hours of sleep
before our big day (especially for me since I had to stay up and
send photos back to the Tribune-Star). That 4:15 a.m. wake-up call
came mighty early!!
October 15, 2006
-- A Saint is born!
Our convoy of buses left the Rouge et Noir hotel promptly at 6 a.m.
this morning. The tour guide told us on the ride over that the
reason we had to leave so early was so we could get good seats. She
also warned us that some
of her fellow Italians might not respect the line and to be prepared
to stand our ground. She was right.
When we arrived at the Vatican it was still dark. There were several
hundred people in front of us in line already and I was told this
was just one of
about four entry points. A large group of Mexican pilgrims was
directly in front of us in line. They were there for the
canonization of Bishop Rafael
Guizar Valencia. Boy were they excited. They waved huge flags and
signs, sang and chanted. One of their songs really sounded like some
kind of fight song, I swear. Our group answered back by singing the
calmer "Our Lady of
Providence, Pray for us." Being a naive American, I had no idea the
nationalism and religious devotion that the other nations would
bring to the canonization. I wished I had a giant Mother Theodore
sign to wave around. The best we could muster up were some 11x14
pictures of MTG I had in my laptop case. They came in handy
nonetheless.
It wasnıt long before large groups of Italians decided they would
just start prancing directly to the front of the now huge line. Our
tour guides put an end to that real quick. They actually formed a
sort of barricade and firmly refused to let anyone pass our group.
Way to go!
As the 8:30 a.m. "gates open time" neared things began to heat up. I
happened to be right at the entrance to the barricaded area that led
to the metal detectors. A group of Mexican nuns saw more Mexicans
ahead of us, already inside the barricaded area. They decided they
needed to join them. The Sisters Of Providence group wasnıt allowing
people to cut, well that didnıt stop the nuns, they just kept
pushing us. And they didnıt stop. Are we going to the Vatican or a
rock concert? It was very uncomfortable for
some of our sisters. I used my Hanson concert-going skills to hold
the line. At one point an SP said to me, "This sister wouldnıt stop
pushing me, so I had to step on her foot!" You gotta do what you
gotta do.
Finally after that crazyness we got into St. Peterıs Square. I went
to acquire my press pass and after that I was free to roam. Well
sort of, we
couldnıt go up the stairs to the altar area (where most SPıs were
sitting) and we were supposed to leave the lower area like 20
minutes before the ceremony and go to the designated press area,
which was on a terrace above the square.
Shooting the ceremony was so amazing. A dream come true. I still
canıt believe I got to cover an international event. I was nervous
in the days leading up to it, afraid my work wouldnıt be able to cut
it. But once I got to St. Peterıs I was in my element. I shot like
never before. Nancy and Trevis Mayfield (who taught me everything I
know about journalism) would have been proud. I wonıt go into detail
about what exactly I did but letıs just say I bent a few Vatican
rules to get some of the shots you saw in the Tribune-Star. Divine
inspiration maybe? It was awesome totally awesome.
Even more awesome than that (if itıs possible) was seeing our own
Mother Theodore become a saint! Nearly 200 years in the making, and
I was there to see it. I was so proud to see our sisters taking part
in the ceremony. I wanted to cheer for them every time. (Actually
the rock concert feel was much more subdued inside the square, I
guess all those crazy nuns were trying to behave in front of the
Pope?) After Mass I went back to the hotel to edit photos and send
back to the Tribune-Star before our big gala dinner out in the
countryside. Only one problem: the approximately four hours of sleep
I had gotten since leaving Indiana on Thursday FINALLY decided to
catch up with me. I literally fell asleep at my computer. Ooops. The
Tribune-Star would have to wait until after the 8-course dinner.
Sorry guys!
October 16, 2006
-- Time for Church
Monday began with a Thanksgiving Mass at St. Paul Outside the Walls
in Rome. On the bus ride there our tour guide was giving us
background information about the church telling us they had mosaics
of all the Popes, but she
didnıt know how many there were. Sister Marie Kevin politely
informed her that there were 265. Itıs good to travel with sisters!
[The rest of this
journal entry is MIA at the moment!]
October 17, 2007
-- When in Rome
After a little *too much* sleep (we overslept our wake up call easy
to do when you donıt have a working phone in your room). We hopped a
cab and were on our way to meet the more punctual members of our
group in line for the Vatican Museums. It was another very early
morning (ha, well not so much for Katy and I since we slept an extra
45 minutes!) Our tour guide insisted we had to get up at 4 am if we
wanted to see Michaelangelo.
Even at such an early hour the museums were jam packed with people.
We apparently took the express route, through a few galleries
including ancient Rome, tapestries (very cool), maps and then
directly to the Sistine Chapel. It was smaller than I expected. We
got to spend some time just enjoying the chapel. It was fabulous.
When the frescoes were restored a few years back they left little
spots here and there so you could see the difference in
what it looked like. The pre-restoration paintings were almost pitch
black compared to the brightly colored versions of today.
We saw Bishop Gettelfinger in the Sistine Chapel. It was neat
because people of other nationalities recognized him as a bishop
(because of his garb) and were approaching him and motioning for a
blessing. He gladly obliged.
From the Sistine Chapel we went to down underneath the Basilica to
see the tombs of various popes. Including John Paul II. You can take
a special tour to the excavation of St. Peterıs tomb. But alas we'll
have to save that for another trip.
Our tour continued inside the actual basilica. Itıs the largest
church in the world. I think they said it would hold 80,000 people
standing. Thatıs insane! Everything in there is amazing, the Pieta,
Berniniıs altar, wow. I was really there.
So what do you do after a morning of taking in a large portion of
the most revered places & objects of your religion? Shopping!
Naturally.
Katy and I wandered the streets around the Vatican looking for
treasures. We visited a mixture of cheesy souvenir shops and little
stores selling religious articles. We even went in store selling
fancy priest vestments. We thought they might kick us out cause we
were girls, but they didnıt. A group of what appeared to be young
men were in there joking and laughing with each other, just like
boys do. One was a priest. We stumbled across another
store, but everyone else seemed to come there quite deliberately. It
was called Soprani and it was zoo. Imagine a tiny shop crammed with
every holy object you can think of. Add nuns, priests,
touristsincluding entire groups speaking a dozen different
languages and piling rosaries, medals and crosses into baskets by
the handfuls. Literally, they bought hundreds of the same object.
Any why not? The prices were unbelievable. I felt like a dope with
my 15 Christmas cards, a couple of medals and tiny nativity scenes.
And buying, what an ordeal! Once you made your selections you had to
make your way upstream through shoppers to a table where a lady who
spoke absolutely no english would add them up on a little paper, bag
them and then hand you the slip. You had to take it an wait in
another llong line to pay. Then you make your way back through the
throng-again-to retrieve your purchase from the lady. I was sweating
by the time I finally made it outside!
As for our other stellar purchases. Letıs just say one of our
favorites was the "hot priests" calendar. Yes, such a product does
exist. Complete with 12 months of attractive young priests.
Tuesday night was our farewell banquet as half the group would be
leaving on Wednesday. Oh my god, it was crazy. Thereıs no way I can
do this event justice.
Oct.
16 pix:
St. Paul Outside
the Walls. I love this place.
The woman who
pretty much made it all happen: Sister Marie Kevin Tighe. She is
amazing. Standing the in presence of greatness I was.
Awesome '04 grads
Theresa Beals Walck, Nicki DeNicolo, me and Katy Goodman '06
I am waiting to
post more pictures to make sure I don't totally exceed my bandwidth.
I took something like three or four thousand pictures during the
week so naturally there are LOTS more I'd love to share.
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Along the river
in Rome.
Cobblestones 1, Katy & Nicki 0
Yay we saw a cat
at the forum! And it was napping right next to this, which I can
only guess means itıs food for that cats and not to disturb it.
Yes, that is
Captain Jack Sparrow sacking the ancient Roman ruins.
An incriminating
photo: While we were waiting for the rest of our group to finish
using the bathroom several of us took the liberty of exploring this
beautiful little area with a very old statue of headless woman,
situated between a tangerine tree and a lime tree, complete with an
empty little pool
in front of it. Well, Nicki pretended to be the head, and one thing
led to another (I think Capın Jack was involved) and we were all
over by the statue touching it and what not. Next thing you know, a
very angry security guard rushes over and starts yelling at us in
Italian. To the best of my knowledge it was something about
respecting the ancient Roman ruins. We hung our heads in shame and
kept saying "weıre sorry". Nickiıs mom (who speaks fluent Italian)
chuckled at the scene from a distance. She wasnıt about to come bail
us out; we deserved it. And they call us "adults."
Sister Jody O'Neil at Vespers
Group singing
from Mother Theodore's homeland of Brittany, France.
THE
CANONIZATION:
This is when those Mexican nuns were trying to get in front of us.
Notice
the serious look on her face? They meant business. Our pilgrims
handled it
well.
Katy excitedly waits for the ceremony to begin. Nice of some fellow
alums to save a seat in the third row!
Darn, I forgot to wear my sombrero to the ceremony. (These were some
pretty
cool outfits though.)
The Oct. 15 saints.
The terrace where the press was perched. I ended up here after my
wanderings. It provided a very beautiful view and the opportunity to
shoot
between 10-foot statues.
The POPE!!! Can
you believe it!?!
Katy and I with Bishop Gettelfinger of Evansville. Such a nice man,
and
weıre related.
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