Below is the column I had planned to publish yesterday, Ferragosto, feast of the Assumption. However, the latest horrifying developments in the sex abuse scandal that came out in what is now called The Pennsylvania Report compelled me to write about that sad reality, rather than post a piece that could have seemed frivolous by comparison. Almost like telling a joke at a wake.
I had thought it would be fun to talk about the lazy, hazy, somewhat amazing days of Ferragosto in Rome with Teresa Tomeo today on “Catholic Connection” but the scandal dominated our thoughts, as it should have.
No reaction from the Vatican on the latest developments, except to repost the USCCB statement on vaticannews.va
I do know that the lack of a comment, a request for prayers, some kind of statement from the Vatican is bothering many people. If the Vatican is trying to be diplomatic as people carefully craft a statement, they should know this is not the time for diplomacy.
Granted, it is holiday and vacation time here. The Assunta, the Assumption of Mary is the biggest holiday/feast day of the summer, perhaps the year, in Italy. Tons of people have vacated Rome and Vatican City and the Roman Curia for the month – or at least the middle two weeks of August.
But that’s no excuse.
THE LAZY, HAZY SUMMER DAYS OF FERRAGOSTO
Today in Italy we are celebrating the biggest holiday of the summer season “Ferragosto,” the name Italians give to the August 15 solemnity of the Assumption. Ferragosto refers to the feriae augusti, meaning “holidays of August.”
These appear to have originated in 18 BC when the Roman Emperor Augustus declared that the entire month of August would be dedicated to the feriae, a series of festivals and celebrations, the most important of which fell on the 13th and was dedicated to the goddess Diana.
Though the term ferragosto is pagan in origin, in Italy it refers to the mid-summer holidays but is interchangeable with the feast of the Assunta, the Assumption, strictly a religious celebration.
There has been a constant tradition in the Church that Mary was assumed into heaven and, as early as the fifth century, this feast was celebrated in Syria, spreading to other parts of the world over the centuries. In the 12th Century, this feast was celebrated in the city of Rome, and in France. From the 13th century onwards, this was a certain tenet of faith and in 1950, Pope Pius XII declared this dogma infallibly and ex cathedra.
The pace of life is much slower in Rome in July and August, particularly August, and you’ll see a lot of chiuso per ferie (closed for vacation) signs posted on the shutters of stores, pharmacies, florists, some restaurants and coffee bars, newsstands, tobacconists, hardware stores, movie theaters, and small, neighborhood food markets known as alimentari or delicatessens. The phones of friends, including many who work in the Roman Curia, ring empty.
The peace and quiet of Rome, due to shuttered stores and greatly reduced traffic, is simply marvelous. It seemed like you could shoot a cannon down the middle of some of the city’s main streets and not hit a thing!
The souvenir stores and mini markets that dot every street in Rome will be open for business as usual. The markets open about 7 in the morning and close at or after midnight.
Life is extra quiet in the Vatican as well. When the Pope is away on vacation (or, in Francis’ case, on a reduced work schedule), this mini-state is almost deserted. The Vatican stores, pharmacy and medical center all have reduced hours because many employees are away on prolonged vacations.
Vacations are quite generous in the summer, at Christmas and at Easter for employees of Vatican City State or the Roman Curia. Employees who live outside of Italy receive an added three days of vacation for travel time and those who live outside of continental Europe receive five additional days for their annual vacation. These vacations usually compensate for working six days a week the rest of the year, which makes weekend travel generally impossible.
There are no public and few private audiences when the Pope is on vacation. Curial activity slows down in the summer, and stops completely on August 14, 15 and 16, all holidays. Only the press office and Secretariat of State are open for business, but with only a skeleton staff.
However, the last few years have been a vast improvement over the early years I lived in Italy, especially when there were very few supermarkets. Once upon a time, Italians bought most of their food at three places: the local alimentari, the neighborhood butcher and the local fruit and vegetable store. Each one was assigned a letter – either A or B – for summer vacations. When A stores closed, B could not. And vice versa. This was to avoid all stores in one neighborhood closing at the same time, forcing people to go longer distances for food. Now we have supermarkets.
I can also remember when the local newspapers actually published the names of the few doctors, including specialists, who were available in Rome at vacation time, as well as a list of the few pharmacies that would be open in a given period.
Years ago, many coffee bars and restaurants closed for close to a month in the summer, especially because so few had air-conditioning. Since the historically hot and brutal summer of 2003 (four non-stop months of record heat, ending in mid-September), more and more stores, bars and restaurants have installed air-conditioning. Ten thousand people died in France that summer, and approximately 1,000 died in Italy.
By law restaurants and bars must close one day a week and that day is always posted outside the entrance or on the shutter. Some overlook this law, while others ask special permission to open on a seventh day. For example, if a restaurant had its weekly closing on a Monday but Monday of a given year was Christmas or Ferragosto, the owner would ask permission from the proper authorities to open that day (or simply open, without the proper permission!).
Until the summer of 2013, Popes generally spent all or much of the summer period at Castelgandolfo. St. John Paul and Benedict XVI often spent some time in July in northern Italy at a vacation home belonging to a diocese or diocesan seminary. Long walks in the woods, some picnics, down time for reading and, in the case of Benedict, quiet time to play the piano, and cooler temps marked those periods. Francis has not spent any time at the summer residence.
You really have to spend an August in Rome (especially just before and after ferragosto) to understand its impact – how life here at that time of year is totally different from anything we’d know or have experienced in the U.S.
Aside from the heat that can take your breath away, I love August in Rome. The streets are almost empty, fewer cars means fewer horns honking and, at times it seems there are even fewer ambulances with sirens blasting away. I love that there are fewer motorbikes! I’ve never had a car here – I walk, take a bus or when needed, hail a taxi, As far as busses go in August, there are a lot more seats available!
The loudest sounds of the past three days have been the thunder, lightening and torrential downpour of rain we get in either mid or late afternoon!
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