Rome, Day 2

On Sunday I celebrated Mass in Spanish with three other Jesuits in the St. Joseph Chapel of the Jesuit Curia. Then at noon we went to St. Peter's Square for the Holy Father's Sunday Angelus Message. Though the weather was cool, the reception for the Holy Father was warm, especially from the various pilgrim groups who came from Spain, Portugal and Brazil, and other parts of Italy.

I had the great privilege of sharing lunch with Archbishop Raymond Burke, formerly Bishop of LaCrosse and Archbishop of St. Louis and currently Prefect of the Signatura, the Supreme Court of the Church. Archbishop Burke has a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and is a great supporter of the Apostleship of Prayer. When I arranged for this meeting, he asked me to bring along 20 of our childrens' booklet, "Do You Know the Sacred Heart of Jesus?" On the ceiling of the chapel in his apartments he has three hearts: the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Purest Heart of Joseph.

After lunch Fr. Jim Grummer and I continued our tour of Rome, visiting 7 churches in three hours, and seeing some of the other famous Roman places like Trevi Fountain. I particularly liked the church of St. Andrew which used to be the chapel for the Jesuit Novitiate and where the body of St. Stanislaus Kostka is buried. In the 16th Century, St. Stanislaus longed to be a Jesuit but his parents opposed his desire and so he walked from Poland to Vienna to Rome in order to enter the Society. He was accepted into the Novitiate but died before taking vows.

We returned to the community for supper followed by a simple social. They say that jet lag usually gets you on the second night and that was the case: I woke up ready for another day at 3 A.M. Many monks rise at that hour to pray and so in my own way I joined them.