LAST CALL: Pilgrim's Progress
Shaffer, Suzanne
LAST CALL SUZANNE SHAFFER Pilgrim's Progress HAT IS THAT? WE HAD TAKEN OFF from Newark airport. Night had fallen, and my squeamish stomach was beginning to relax. Above the heads of...
...How I fell into this pilgrimage will remain a mystery...
...It's 10 a.m...
...Peter's Square...
...Dining at Palazzo Barberini, we hear that two Italian women hostages are freed in Iraq...
...I do believe His Holiness heard me say, "Thank you for your theology of the body...
...It is white, clean, quiet, and awesome...
...This multi-course dinner is a precursor of the week's fare...
...We are dwarfed...
...I am really here...
...He thumps Father Roger's head while we gather around John Paul II's chair following his weekly address...
...I guess it's a matter of faith, which itself is an exhilarating journey...
...We learn there is no St...
...We tiptoe into Michelangelo's private office...
...But here I am on my way to join 21 other pilgrims in Vatican City to drink in its history, culture, and faith...
...My goodness, it's tracking our flight...
...Above the heads of passengers was a monitor now alive with some sort of map, followed by kilometers and miles and times of day, then back to the map...
...In the hushed 15th-century church, we approach unity praying that we will be open to Christ's message for each of us on this pilgrimage...
...We're from America's West Coast, Midwest, South, Northeast, and East Coast...
...Ristorante Scarpone ("Big Foot") delivers...
...John Lateran of the Church—it's a combination of John the Evangelist and John the Baptist as renamed by varied popes—and it was built with the moneyed support of the Lateri family...
...We mix tentatively but warmly...
...Hours later, my eyes are locked onto that screen...
...We Americans toast Italy by continuing our tour to Castel Gondolfo, Chiesa Nuova, Santa Maria Maggiore, Assisi, and the Swiss Guard barracks, and visit with the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith's Father Di Noia and the Pope's press secretary But Our Holy Father tops them all, literally...
...How could they let us see anything so frightening...
...See how we run...
...The woman next to me admits she's a nervous flyer...
...Paul- Outside-the-Walls...
...I experience authentic Italian olive oil and mozzarella ("Are those hard boiled eggs...
...Bob from Washington gently guides him back to the hotel for care...
...That did it...
...Next stop, Newark, and then home to hug my sister Italian-style at Reagan Airport...
...Peter brings us cohe70 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR March 2005 sion through mutual concern...
...Saturday in Vatican City...
...Early Monday morning, Bob from Michigan trips and falls on the cobblestones on our way to Mass...
...We move on to Vespers at Sant'Onofrio...
...For a neophyte intercontinental traveler, I am faring rather well...
...We walk across the street into St...
...Following erudite (and young...
...Why do 22 intelligent souls run non-stop for seven days...
...It's my first trip overseas...
...Kevin and I find the outside, where we smoke...
...Can you tell by the way I keep on talking...
...Look how far we have to go...
...We meet our fellow pilgrims at a brief reception...
...We see beggars outside the walls of St...
...Suzanne Shaffer is The American Spectator's assistant publisher...
...We plumb deep into the "Scavi," the dark and humid paths of excavation under the Basilica where the real story of St...
...We are engineers, homeschoolers, nurses, consultants, physicians, attorneys, traders, and more...
...I will not look at that again...
...we are one...
...Both Bobs rejoin us and the week unfolds...
...Father Roger, we charge up Gianiculum Hill to North American College for Mass, lunch with the seminarians (their evident love for Christ amazes us) and a rooftop panorama of Rome...
...Mass in the Lithuanian Chapel beneath the tomb of St...
...The vino and meats leave me breathless...
...Blood trickles from his brow, and Dr...
...I wonder when they will activate that monitor...
...Our host, Defense Minister Antonio Martino, toasts America...
...Peter is discovered...
...Then my first Italian dinner...
...Mary Ann and I check into Residenza Paolo VI, but our rooms are not ready...
...Mary Ann was the catalyst, after we talked about Rome as my dream trip...
...The plane soars into a very blue sky...
Vol. 38 • March 2005 • No. 2
