This week has become a blur. I have seen the place where Caesar was stabbed (in a theater, not in the Senate), I’ve seen the first representations of the Madonna, I have walked through St. Peter’s piazza on the way home after a grocery run, the tombs of two apostles, and today I have a chance to breathe. It’s hard to take it all in sufficiently. I’ve also found friends here who are teaching me a lot about Catholicism and faith. I’ve gone to morning prayer with them occasionally in St. Peter’s, and in conversation with these two I’m learning a lot about my own ways of thinking and my own faith. Trying to evaluate and change how you think is much more exhausting even than walking the streets of Rome and taking notes furiously.
A few highlights/sketches of what we’ve been up to.
Monday we walked from Largo Argentina through the Jewish ghetto, into Mary Major’s and St. Praesede’s churches. Largo Argentina is primarily important as a major bus stop, but also as the location of the Roman cat hospital. Male cats are caught and neutered, which has made a significant dent in the stray cat population. The hospital sits down in some Roman ruins, so we spent some time taking pictures of the felines perched on crumbling columns and walls. The Jewish ghetto neighborhood still has some Jewish inhabitants, but not too many. The synagogue there is considered to be an important one, so lots of Jewish visitors come on Friday nights for the Sabbath. Mary Major’s is the first church dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, after the council of Ephesus declared her so in 431. It contains a relic of the crib of Christ, which also makes it a big deal. St. Praesede’s was built in the 4th century, and then another church was built on top of it in the 5th. Mostly it was really pretty, and we learned some new vocab. One shining Maher story turned up in St. Mary of Trastevere’s (we went back with the whole group): Maher showed us a picture of the Church treading on Heresy, both personified as women because the nouns are feminine in Latin. Fr. Maher proclaimed, “Dan Brown says that that painting represents Pope Joan because Dan Brown is stupid. He also never took first semester Latin. If you say things that aren’t true you’ll make more money, but remember that Fr. Maher will think less of you at the end of the day.” We got a smile out of his harangue, but I also agree with him. He also told us the story of how he explained what a porta-potty is to Ratzinger in a meeting preparing for a world youth day. No big deal.
Tuesday morning we toured the Catacombs of Priscilla. Our mandated, Italian guide had-uh quite-uh the accent. We saw some of the earliest known Christian artwork and wandered between empty locii (shelves for bodies) in part of the 13 km of tufa tunnels. I didn’t think it was too spooky, what with decent lighting, no bones, and a big group, but our guide still had fun with a few people by saying that some of the tunnels had been blocked off…after they had led some tourists down there. 40,000 people were buried in these tombs, and I actually thought it was rather cozy. A family could have a wall, and then you’d always be next to each other, kinda like in bunk beds. Maybe that’s weird, but that’s what I thought.
In the afternoon we took the train to Ostia Antica, a Roman ruin as well preserved as Pompeii. As Fr. told us, the only difference with Pompeii is that there are no writhing figures caught in ash and nothing is fenced off. Plus you can actually get there on the Rome metro system. Sounds good to me! The town was covered with silt from the Tiber after the Romans deforested the Apennine hills to heat the baths, which caused erosion, which caused flooding in Rome and Ostia, and moved the coastline out another mile or so from the port city of Ostia. Squatters lived there in the middle ages, but the town is basically intact. It was really neat to walk along the streets and on the original mosaics and sit in the theater. The sun was shining, there were wildflowers, and we had sack lunches. We also had shade from the huge pines the romantic Germans planted around the ruins in the 1800’s. Absolutely beautiful.
Wednesday we took the plunge and ‘did’ the Vatican museum. We got there around 7:45 to get in line. It’s possible to pay double price per person and have a timed entrance, but then we couldn’t get the student discount and free educational headsets for Fr. to talk into. So we waited. The place was flooded with Asian tourists. Fr. says that all of Rome is flooded with them, but most of them don’t have any idea what they’re looking at. Many westerners don’t really know either, but they do have a Christian and European historical background to compare it against. The Asians apparently look at the Vatican as something exotic, just like we goggle at the Forbidden City or Tokyo, I guess. We noticed them taking pictures of the most unusual or inconsequential things; random bits of ceiling, the hall corners. They just seemed to think the place was pretty. Which it is, but there’s so much culture and religion behind the Vatican. We survived the crowds pretty well, Fr. picked a Wednesday so a chunk of the tourists were at the Papal audience instead. We saw the Laocoon (!!!), The School of Athens, the Apoxymenos, and the Sistine Chapel. Well, those were the big names, anyway. We also saw the jeep JPII was in when a terrorist shot him (he made it, but nearly died because the people around him “had no plan” and drove him around for 45 minutes trying to decide which nearby hospital to go to. Fr. has absolutely no patience for bad discipline and planning compromising anyone’s safety, so you imagine what he thinks of those problems when the pope’s life was on the line.) There was so much to see, we spent 6 hours and Fr. kept us from getting lost or getting bogged down in detail. So you can imagine the size of the place.
At night one of the girls made her signature lasagna, which was really good (cream cheese was involved, after all. Not very Italian, but hey, we eat a lot of olive oil), and we used the extra egg noodles and cream cheese to make little desert rolls with some strawberry jam. It kinda tasted like crepes, so I was pleased. Fr. came over to our apartment to sup, and he told us all kinds of stories. Some of my favorite had to do with his experiences pre-marital counseling. He told us about one engagement he broke up; it was over ferrets. The man had 15 ferrets living in the house and expected his ferret-hating fiancée to live in the other half of the house and to feed them when he was away. Fr. kept bringing up ‘the little weasels’ to get them to talk it out. The guy finally told the lady that she had to pick between him and the ferrets or nothing – so she walked out. He thought she had gone to the bathroom. As Fr. says, he never has to make things up, people are weird enough as is.
Thursday was pretty quiet, we had an easy morning of Renaissance facades. At night we got dressed up and walked along the Geniculum hill to dinner in Trastevere. We didn’t know we were a 10 minute walk away from one of the most beautiful views of Rome; I want to go back tonight for a walk. The light around 7 or 8 at night is the best for photos; all the colors of the stone and trees come out. Fr. took us through the non-touristy part of Trastevere, which was also cool to see. It felt more honest and like people were simply living instead of moving through a display case.
We had a dinner of carbonara and two other pastas I didn’t know, then lamb, oxtail, potatoes, and tiramisu for dessert. I sat next to Fr. and learned about Gonzaga politics and the Jesuits’ roles therein. In Jesuit history we covered up through the 1800’s but nothing too contemporary, so I was curious. He thought the current situation reflected wider changes for all religious, not just Jesuits. Priests used to be in the top 5 or 10 percent of the population ranked by education level, but now more people are more educated and they are no longer the elite. As Jesuits found their strength in dealing with education and intellectual and political elites, that changes the structure around them significantly. The other problem is that society’s notion of sacred has shifted away from religion to pop culture and sports – the priests and religious are no longer needed to access the sacred. Without a perceived need, without a strong identity, religious societies decline. Fr. thinks the anti-establishment ethos of the 60’s is fading, however, as he watches floods of nuns return to Rome. There were hardly any when he first came in the 70’s. He also has hopes for Jesuit education having a renaissance and Gonzaga coming back into more orthodox hands. So that was encouraging. Historians are patient, after all, so I guess it might be a while before any of that actually happens.
Friday was one of the most beautiful days we’ve had here. Fr. took us to Tivoli, a little village about 45 minutes by train from Rome. There’s a nice cathedral we poked our heads into, as well as the Temple of the Tivoli sibyl, but the biggest attraction is the Villa d’Este. The villa, built in the 1600’s on top of a Roman villa, served as a summer house for a French cardinal. And the garden is considered THE world standard for pleasure gardens and French style gardens. Versailles looks pretty skimpy in comparison. Fr. told us a bit about it and then turned us loose to spend 3 hours walking through arbors and gawking at fountains. It was impossible to fully describe, even with a camera. I’ll give you some photos to get an idea.
At night one of the girls made her signature lasagna, which was really good (cream cheese was involved, after all. Not very Italian, but hey, we eat a lot of olive oil), and we used the extra egg noodles and cream cheese to make little desert rolls with some strawberry jam. It kinda tasted like crepes, so I was pleased. Fr. came over to our apartment to sup, and he told us all kinds of stories. Some of my favorite had to do with his experiences pre-marital counseling. He told us about one engagement he broke up; it was over ferrets. The man had 15 ferrets living in the house and expected his ferret-hating fiancée to live in the other half of the house and to feed them when he was away. Fr. kept bringing up ‘the little weasels’ to get them to talk it out. The guy finally told the lady that she had to pick between him and the ferrets or nothing – so she walked out. He thought she had gone to the bathroom. As Fr. says, he never has to make things up, people are weird enough as is.
Thursday was pretty quiet, we had an easy morning of Renaissance facades. At night we got dressed up and walked along the Geniculum hill to dinner in Trastevere. We didn’t know we were a 10 minute walk away from one of the most beautiful views of Rome; I want to go back tonight for a walk. The light around 7 or 8 at night is the best for photos; all the colors of the stone and trees come out. Fr. took us through the non-touristy part of Trastevere, which was also cool to see. It felt more honest and like people were simply living instead of moving through a display case.
We had a dinner of carbonara and two other pastas I didn’t know, then lamb, oxtail, potatoes, and tiramisu for dessert. I sat next to Fr. and learned about Gonzaga politics and the Jesuits’ roles therein. In Jesuit history we covered up through the 1800’s but nothing too contemporary, so I was curious. He thought the current situation reflected wider changes for all religious, not just Jesuits. Priests used to be in the top 5 or 10 percent of the population ranked by education level, but now more people are more educated and they are no longer the elite. As Jesuits found their strength in dealing with education and intellectual and political elites, that changes the structure around them significantly. The other problem is that society’s notion of sacred has shifted away from religion to pop culture and sports – the priests and religious are no longer needed to access the sacred. Without a perceived need, without a strong identity, religious societies decline. Fr. thinks the anti-establishment ethos of the 60’s is fading, however, as he watches floods of nuns return to Rome. There were hardly any when he first came in the 70’s. He also has hopes for Jesuit education having a renaissance and Gonzaga coming back into more orthodox hands. So that was encouraging. Historians are patient, after all, so I guess it might be a while before any of that actually happens.
Friday was one of the most beautiful days we’ve had here. Fr. took us to Tivoli, a little village about 45 minutes by train from Rome. There’s a nice cathedral we poked our heads into, as well as the Temple of the Tivoli sibyl, but the biggest attraction is the Villa d’Este. The villa, built in the 1600’s on top of a Roman villa, served as a summer house for a French cardinal. And the garden is considered THE world standard for pleasure gardens and French style gardens. Versailles looks pretty skimpy in comparison. Fr. told us a bit about it and then turned us loose to spend 3 hours walking through arbors and gawking at fountains. It was impossible to fully describe, even with a camera. I’ll give you some photos to get an idea.
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