CATCHING UP: THE NATIONAL SHRINE CHOIR AT THE ITALIAN EMBASSY

CATCHING UP: THE NATIONAL SHRINE CHOIR AT THE ITALIAN EMBASSY

Internet issues have been solved and I now have time to catch up and bring you some of the photos from the concerts of the choir of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The choir is marking its 50^th anniversary and their brief stay in Rome this past week was part of those celebrations. In that short time, the choir sang at four Masses – one Mass in each of the four papal basilicas – and performed three concerts in as many Roman churches.

The following are pictures from the Thursday concert at the Italian Embassy to the Holy See.

The wife of Ambassador Daniele Mancini talks to Msgr. Walter Rossi and choir director Peter Latona –

A tapestry in the embassy chapel –

Here are photos of the embassy – just the outside courtyards and the space in the porticoed area where the buffet dinner was set up after the concert.

I have known Msgr. Walter Rossi, shrine director, Peter Latona, choir director and Callista Gingrich and her husband Newt for many years. This photo was taken before the embassy concert.

A ROMAN TRIBUTE TO THE FALLEN IN FRANCE

A ROMAN TRIBUTE TO THE FALLEN IN FRANCE

Just a brief note to accompany these photos taken yesterday afternoon by Ryan Muldoon, a friend from New York who is a first year seminarian at the North American College.  We met at a bus stop as I was on my way to an early evening Mass and he was returning to NAC from an afternoon of visiting churches in Rome. Ryan also stopped by Pza. Farnese, site of the French embassy, and this is what he saw – the tribute of Romans to their brothers and sisters in France after the horrendous, barbaric attacks in Paris on Friday.