Home sweet Rome! I got back to the Eternal City yesterday and hit the ground running! I got off the plane at 8am, was home by 9 (luggage, passport control, taxi home), went to Mass at 10 and after that went to Homebaked for brunch! Then a nap and work on my script for today’s edition of “At Home with Jim and Joy.”
I had to run an errand this afternoon and learned that coming weeks and months will be quite difficult for moving around the city, be it by bus or car (taxi). Much of the work being done around the city that has led to street closures, direction reversals of one-way streets and bus detours has been described as “improvements” and “updates” for the 2025 Holy Year. You can’t image what has happened in the vicinity of the Vatican!
And today I found out that the very central traffic hub, Largo Argentina, will be out of commission for a while. It seems that tracks laid years ago in that area (which includes the Roman ruins where Julius Caesar was assassinated) for the Number 8 tram are now being uprooted (or replaced by new ones? I am not sure!), and the streets will again be paved (?). I did some research on what Rome has in mind for coming years for new tram routes, street closures, bus re-routings, etc., and it is scary!
Photo credit, Roman Scene
Two well-furnished stationary stores, easily reached from my home, closed as a result of Covid. I now go to a great place near Largo Argentina in the center of Rome but and today saw the work I just described. All traffic – anything with wheels! – is being re-routed. Fortunately, sidewalks are still available!
So, Home sweet Rome (maybe)!
SUNDAY: POPE RENEWS INVITATION TO SATURDAY’S SYNOD VIGIL
Speaking after his weekly recitation of the Angelus prayer, the Holy Father said that “I renew my invitation to participate in the ecumenical prayer vigil entitled ‘Together’, which will take place next Saturday, the 30th September, in St Peter’s Square, in preparation for the Synodal Assembly which will begin on the 4th October.”
Entrusting the Synod to the Holy Spirit
Around 3,000 young people from 40 different countries are expected at the vigil, which will be held from 5 to 7pm on Saturday 30th October.
Pope Francis will be joined by twelve representatives of various Christian traditions, including the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury. TO CONTINUE: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-09/pope-francis-together-prayer-vigil-synod-saturday.html
For more on this ecumenical prayer vigil: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-09/the-ecumenical-prayer-vigil-is-drawing-near.html
ALSO SUNDAY: Pope Francis went to pay his respects to the late Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, lying in state in the Nassirya Room of the Senate of the Republic.
The Holy Father’s visit, according to a statement by the Holy See Press Office, came as a demonstration of his personal affection for the late President and his family, while also honouring President Napolitano’s outstanding service to Italy.
MONDAY: POPE FRANCIS: CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CONCERNS THE ENTIRE SOCIETY
Addressing a delegation of the Latin American Research and Training Commission for the Protection of Minors (CEPROME), Pope Francis highlights the progress made by the Church in eradicating the scourge of child sexual abuse, and calls for continued action to safeguard vulnerable people.
By Lisa Zengarini
The scourge of child sexual abuse must be addressed by society at large, Pope Francis told a Catholic Latin American interdisciplinary group involved in training priests and religious for the protection of minors.
“The abuses that have affected the Church are but a pale reflection of a sad reality that involves all of humanity and to which the necessary attention is not paid,” said the Pope in his address on Monday to a delegation of the “Consejo Latinoamericano del Centro de Investigación y Formación para la Protección del Menor” (Latin American Research and Training Commission for the Protection of Minors, CEPROME).
Face of the suffering Christ
In his address, the Holy Father associated the suffering of abused children and of all vulnerable persons to that of the suffering Christ, recalling the “martyr child”, St. Chistopher de La Guardia celebrated by the Church in Spain on 25 September.
“How the world would change,” he said, “if we saw in the suffering of every child, of every vulnerable person, a trait imprinted in the veil with which Veronica wiped the face of Christ!” TO CONTINUE: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-09/pope-child-sexual-abuse-concerns-the-entire-society.html
Joan's Rome 