Roman Sweet Home

Roman Vacation - a vacation from Papal Chatter

Do you remember my promise to you, my dear readers? Nothing new; not a single thing that’s from the past three weeks. Now, you might object that, for someone who’s in Rome - again - and who sang for the Papal Easter Mass; who was at Divine Liturgy when the bells rang throughout the city (as they do when any Pope dies or a new one is elected); who worked for the Vatican “inside the walls”; who translated the “hard parts” of Benedict’s resignation; who was at St. Peter’s for this past Pope’s election; whose first-born was the last child blessed by Benedict, that surely I should make an exception and discuss or opine on recent Roman events. Pax et bonum (St. Francis’ “motto”) - all peace and good to you, my friends, but I shall not break my promise - and here’s why:

We’re in a tyranny of the present, the ‘now’, the latest. Past and present leaders - both of religions and of nations - have made this worse. The young and the old LIVE on their blasted phones. Even (especially?) in Rome.

I first came to Rome as a seminarian, in 2005, on my way to Florence for seminary. I returned to visit a priest-friend in Rome twice per year, until I moved to Rome in 2010. For those 5 years, even as cell-phone *use* sky-rocketed, people were still taking in the sights and the sites. PEOPLE were taking all this in - not their phones. Now?

Yesterday, I went to Ostia: an important archeological site in “Greater Rome”, it was also where St. Monica and St. Augustine parted ways and where St. Monica died. I went to St. Aurea, which is built over her place of death - and which is beside the old Fun-house of Julius II. All phones. People trip now in Rome, not because of the poor roads (which were actually in much better shape this time, even compared to January, when I was here last), but because they’re not looking at anything but their phones.

This excursus has a present point: this focus on the now, the tyranny of the present, causes us to forget the past - and especially to forget the lessons from the past. English-speakers could apply the saying, “missing the forest for the trees”, since none of us would deny that modern things also matter and count in our evaluation of reality.

It’s almost as if the YOLO, modern-focus has even taken a little bit away from good old prognostications, prophesying and predicting of the future!

Now, it seems to me that human life - on this earth - needs a balance of the old, the recent, and the future. That’s another philosophical and theological topic, but let’s assume it for now: I don’t think that too many would dispute that - even if there’s room to dispute the particular focus or “percentage” of one’s focus on any one of those three. A Chesterton response would be that the mad-man is too focused on one (or even two) of those, to the *exclusion* of another. Even Rome - as bound to tradition as she once was - finds herself in this whirlpool of the now. She needs to “go back…to the future”, if you’ll excuse that once-popular reference.

To close, I’ll get a tid-bit that might evoke thoughts of present circumstances, at least: if I had to be buried in a Roman church, I’d pick S. Maria Maggiore / St. Mary Major. There’s a curious calm to that Roman Major Basilica, even though it’s practically beside Termini Station. The art and architecture leave one at peace. There’s St. Jerome, the Crib, Salus Populi Romani, Xystus, and many other interesting bits in every corner. OK, it’s also the official home parish for St. Vito and Russicum / Sant’Antonio, where several of my children received sacraments of initiation and where my wife and I began our parochial life together.