This past weekend topped anything I have experienced so far in my two years in Rome. Being better networked now means that I get invited to more things around town, and almost all of this weekend’s events in some way involved religious and priests.

There was an Ordination in the Romanian Greek-Catholic (Byzantine) rite, and I was able to glimpse some of the beauty of long masses in a different language and what that does to unveil a mystery rather than veiling it. You would think two hours forty minutes in Romanian would be boring, but far from it. The weaving back and fourth between the sacred and profane, the altar ‘room’ with the doors opening and closing – it somehow spoke to me, that’s all I can say.

There was a talk by Cherie Blair, the wife of the former British prime minister, which was moving and inspiring and challenging (you will see why from this article about it).

I also helped bless the changeover of one General Council (the leadership body of a religious order) to another by gate-crashing their mass. I knew so many people there that it felt appropriate to go, and besides, the Superior General of the Jesuits, Adolfo Nicolás, was giving the homily and I try to hear him speak whenever I get a chance – he is just naturally inspiring, that’s his job and he does it very well.

There were about fifty religious sisters at the ceremony, from all kinds of different congregations, and no more than ten men, most of them priests, most around the altar. This was such a sharp contrast to the ordination, where it had been the opposite ratio, with an even bigger crowd.

I also visited two friends of mine, women religious as well, and spent a wonderful morning and lunch with them and their community, singing Christmas carols and being taken around the beautiful villa of their Generalate (headoffice).

Sunday ended at the English College, where the seminarians from the UK who are studying in Rome stay. It was their annual carol singing and theatre performance night, and both were great fun. Here, the audience was younger (mostly seminarians from other colleges) but the atmosphere was one of tradition and venerability – it’s the “Venerable English College” in its full title, after all.

Going back and forth between male-dominated and female-dominated events, one cannot help but compare. What I saw over the course of this weekend were many more similarities than differences. First of all, it seems that we are all trying to give life to something called “church” which is ultimately us, each one of us, ordained, professed or “normal”. And we are all struggling to do that, even though we are sure of God’s presence in the process.

What touched me, every time, was when that search was done honestly, without hiding difficulties or pretending that it would all be “okay”. At the English College, it was the sharp satire of the “theatre” part that seemed to bring relief (one might even say liberation) to the student-actors who could step out of their usual roles and say something honest about the ups and downs of their lives as seminarians.

At the changeover ceremony of the sisters, it was the physical expression of handing over the tools of their work to the next General Council, and the stretching out of hands to bless them that spoke most honestly, almost without words, of the hard work, the joy and pain that come with leading the order.

Fr Nicolás’ homily on that occasion was as honest as always, and there is no desperation when he acknowledges that we “have lost it” – the attraction that religious orders and their founders once radiated. His is a hopeful realism coming from a trust in God that’s far beyond any worries about shrinking numbers.

At the ordination, the moment of truth was maybe in the person of the ordinand himself. A Jesuit who is ordained a priest in the Byzantine rite will inevitably bring together people and mentalities from far and wide. And so this ordination was not only a completely “strange” but fully Catholic rite in a city where minor changes to the Roman rite are always hotly debated, but a sign of a Kingdom where there are no more divisions between Christians. It was a concrete reason to keep the dream alive, with concrete people acting out the huge diversity of the Catholic church.

No related posts.