Ciao da Roma!

We arrived safely in Rome at the end of last month and began our studies for the Safeguarding Diploma at the Gregorian on October 1, the feast of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

Our nervous smiles on the first day of school

Soon after arriving in Rome and starting school, we both promptly got sick, one after the other. We were quite put out by this because not only do we hate being sick in general but being sick in Rome of all places just seems like an incredible waste of time.

But we also know that moments like these are opportunities to offer our disappointment for those we serve in this mission. This past year, we have spoken to many survivors of abuse in the Church who have reached out to share their stories with us via email, Zoom, and direct messages. We do not take this for granted. Every story we hear we hold in our hearts and in our prayers. The incredibly painful experiences that people have entrusted to us resound in our hearts and urge us on every day in our studies.

Before we give you an update on some of our adventures here, we first want to thank all of our readers and supporters for making these studies possible for us. Your financial support made it possible for us to attend this program and we could not have done this without the incredibly generous response we received to our request for help funding this opportunity. Thanks to your generous donations, we now have slightly surpassed our goal; any additional funds we receive will go toward our immediate needs when we arrive in our new diocese in March of next year.

We also want to thank so many of you for your thoughtful gestures as we arrived here. One group of graduates and undergraduates visiting Rome asked us if we missed anything from the US yet. We told them, “Kind Bars and peanut butter.” Next thing we knew, we had bags and bags of bars and peanut butter. Another kind soul sent us lunch boxes that we could use to pack our lunches for school to save money.

We could go on and on about all of you but in the end we just really want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts and promise our prayers for each on of you while we are here in Rome.

Now on to some adventures we’ve been on since we got here:

1. We attended a talk by Bishop Barron at the Angelicum, (the Dominicans let us in even though we are attending a Jesuit university).

2. We went to the Vatican Museums on the free day, (braving the bustling crowds was definitely worth seeing the Sistine Chapel).

3. We’ve tried supplì, maritozzi and, of course, gelato.

4. And we have walked … a lot. This past weekend we walked all the way to Saint Peter’s, which is about an hour walk from where we live.

This past Sunday, we headed to Saint Peter’s on foot because we had the opportunity to attend the closing Mass for the Synod. Since we do not have many connections in Rome, we figured we would probably get seats outside or at the back of Saint Peter’s Basilica. But as we walked in, we happened to see a Swiss Guard we know. He motioned for us to walk down the main red carpet, toward the seating in the front.

As we walked toward the shimmering, newly unveiled baldacchino, we both laughed nervously.

“I feel like we shouldn’t be here,” Sr. Theresa Aletheia said quietly.

“That’s exactly how I was feeling,” laughed Sr. Danielle Victoria.

As we settled into our seats, we noticed Pope Francis’ white chair just twenty feet away. We have had a lot of moments that have felt surreal in our lives over these past two years but somehow ending up feet away from the Pope definitely put it all in perspective.

As we both sat quietly in our seats, without words, we marveled at all that has happened since the Lord called us to this mission. In so many ways, our experiences are inarticulable. Whether or not we “succeed” at what we feel called to do, we can say that we know deep down that the mystery of what God is calling us to is far deeper and more powerful than our feelings of inadequacy and littleness in the face of this mission.

We’ll leave you with some thoughts from Pope Francis’ homily that we found inspiring:

“It is good if the Synod is urging us as a Church to be like Bartimaeus: a community of disciples who, hearing that the Lord is passing by, feel the joy of salvation, allow ourselves to be awakened by the power of the Gospel, and to cry out to him. The Church does this when it takes up the cry of all the women and men of the world, of those who wish to discover the joy of the Gospel, and of those who have turned away; the silent cry of those who are indifferent; the cry of those who suffer, of the poor and marginalized, of children who are enslaved in so many parts of the world for work; the broken voice of those who no longer have the strength to cry out to God, either because they have no voice or because they are in despair. We do not need a sedentary and defeatist Church, but a Church that hears the cry of the world – I wish to say this even if some might be scandalized—a Church that gets its hands dirty in serving. …

Brothers and sisters, not a seated Church, but a Church on her feet.

Not a silent Church, but a Church that embraces the cry of humanity.

Not a blind Church, but a Church, enlightened by Christ, that brings the light of the Gospel to others.

Not a static Church, but a missionary Church that walks with her Lord through the streets of the world.”