Pastor's Column

Jun 20

Written by:
Sunday, June 20, 2010 

 

 

 

This last week as you know, I spent in Rome at the International Retreat for the closing of the Year of the Priest, and so I wanted to share a few reflections and pictures of this historic and moving event with you.

 

 On Tuesday, we attended a charismatic Mass and talk with many famous speakers at St. John Lateran Basilica. It was very interesting, but after 30 hours of travel and no sleep, it was hard to stay awake! On Wednesday and Thursday, we met at the famous Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls for talks, Mass, and Eucharistic Adoration.  Because there were so many priests in attendance, the altar simply was too small to hold all the cups and bowls for Mass, so out of the 8000 priests in attendance that day, I and 50 other priests were chosen to hold a chalice or bowl while celebrating Mass. In a sense, I was both the priest and the altar. It was a very moving moment in my priesthood.

 

 Thursday night we were invited to a vigil service at St. Peter's Basilica. This may sound like an intimate gathering, but in fact the statistics were startling! 9000 priests were expected to attend. In fact, 15,000 actually showed up! There were 800 bishops present and 115 cardinals as well. That evening the weather was beautiful and cool. The Pope was in attendance and answered questions extemporaneously -- that is without notes. Popes almost never do this -- we were very impressed!

 

 There were so many profoundly moving moments, but the highlight came when the Pope rolled through in his Pope-mobile. He made sure that all of us priests had a chance to see him -- he made the rounds twice just to be sure! And he looked at me personally -- right in the eye -- both times!

 

 One of the most memorable moments for all of us was when he addressed all the priests and simply said, “We love you in Rome!”  So we shouted, ”We love you too!”  And the Pope had tears in his eyes. We all noticed that. Actually, many of us had tears in our eyes too.
The universality of the church is truly amazing! We Americans were in the minority; about one third of those in attendance were Italian priests; and about 10,000 priests were from every country of the world -- for example, I met priests from China, Japan, Russia, Nicaragua, Togo, Mozambique, Pakistan, Australia,-- Africa was represented very well.  The only language we could all celebrate Mass together in, of course, was Latin.

 

Friday morning was the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and the final closing Mass. It was an historic moment-- the largest concelebrated Mass in the history of the Catholic Church. Some moments were very challenging for us. My traveling companion, Father Peter Smith, lost his luggage. Fortunately, I was able to help him since I used to find lost luggage! A more serious challenge was just getting through security Friday morning. There were at least 5000 priests trying to get through three slow security checkpoints. We must have spent an hour and a half all jammed together. Finally they gave up, just opened the gates and let us all in!

 

The heat and humidity of the Friday Mass was difficult. Because there were too many of us to fit inside St. Peter's, everything took place out in the hot sun. They passed out a bunch of goofy looking hats for us to wear.  I have never worn a hat while celebrating Mass before, but it was sure welcome this time! You can see a picture of it here.

 

Another highlight of the week was our tour of the excavations under St. Peter's. We saw Peter’s ancient grave and the first decorated tombs of Peter erected by Constantine, and, amazingly, what are believed to be his bones, visible directly under the high altar.

 

As I wrote last week, I brought all of you with me to the Mass. The prayer shawl ministry gave me a small prayer cloth with a heart pinned to it, and I brought this with me into the Mass. Of course, I represented the diocese that sent me, but in this little prayer cloth, all of you came with me too.  I'm glad to have been at this historic occasion and glad to be home as well.  God Bless!
 

Father Gary