Viva IL Papa! Audience with the Pope.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Rome

Our very first full day in Rome began with a carb-hearty breakfast and a cup of marvelous Italian caffe latte--make that two!--in Hotel Sant Angelo. We had a long lazy lie-in and only finished with breakfast at about 10 am which gave us a good half hour for our walk to the Vatican for our Papal Audience. When we reached St. Peter's Piazza we were shocked at the vast crowds that had assembled and already taken their seats. I had expected our audience to be a private meeting with the Holy Father in a small private chamber--which, I am told, is how these audiences usually take place.

To our good or bad luck, however, our visit to Rome happened to coincide with the fourth death anniversary of former Pope John Paul II--and thousands of youth and pilgrims had descended upon the city to participate in the events associated with the milestone. The Piazza was filled to capacity with groups that carried flags, banners and placards to announce their origins and we were really very lucky to find seats for ourselves right by the pathways through which the Popemobile would be passing.

It was not long before the frenzy began as Pope Benedict XVI made his way into the congregation. From our seats, we received a clear view of his passing vehicle, his smiling face, his hands held out in blessings. I realized that it would be impossible to get good pictures and so I relinquished our camera into Llew's charge deciding instead to get good views of him instead of bothering with pictures. When he passed just a few feet in front of us it was just too good to be true and though we followed the rest of the rather long multi-lingual service on the huge screens that are set up to offer gigantic views of the proceedings, we did cherish those few seconds when we had our own personal glimpse of him.

With this visit to Rome, I have now seen three of the Popes who have served during my lifetime--Pope Paul VI (whom I saw as a child during the Eucharistic Congress in Bombay in 1966), Pope John Paul II whom I saw during his visit to Bombay, India just before I emigrated to the States (I still remember the thousands of people that gathered at Shivaji Park to mark the occasion) and now my papal audience with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. I was also delighted to discover, while the announcements were being made that somewhere in the mammoth audience was a delegation from St. John's University in Queens, New York, my alma mater, and the institution in which I earned my doctorate. It felt as if I was singled out too when the roster was read and the name of St. John's University's delegation came up.

Exploring St. Peter's Basilica:
Then, we were out on the streets of Rome in what remained a day-long drizzle. Unfortunately, we had not carried along our umbrellas. Instead of getting soaked, we decided to walk back to our hotels for a siesta after picking up take-away paninis from a bar right by our hotel. It was at 3 pm that we set out again along the picturesque banks of the River Tiber for our tour of St. Peter’s Basilica (which had remained closed to visitors during the morning’s Papal Audience and for a good two hours later).

Entry into the Basilica is now a high security affair with metal detectors and airport style frisking! However, once we were inside, we were free to roam as the fancy took us and we made a bee-line as did all visitors to the little chapel of the right on the main door where Michelangelo’s Pieta sits in all its gleaming marble glory. Though it is now so far away from the excited spectators who can’t seem to get enough of this, perhaps the world’s most famous sculpture, the impact is still so sublime that the statue seems to breathe. I made sure I spent time taking in the folds of fabric that made up Mary’s voluminous skirts and the pointed toe of her shoe—items that echo the Burgundy Madonna that I show visitors on the tours I give at the Met.

Then, Llew and I were looking at all the highlights of the Basilica—in particular Bernini’s magnificent sculptural works that celebrate the lives and works of so many illustrious Popes, each of whom built more and more ostentatious monuments to honor their own memory! Talk about megalomania! It is only when you get to Rome that you understand why there was a Protestant Reformation in the history of the church!

Of course, as practicing Catholics, there was no way that Llew and I could only look upon St. Peter’s as a work of art—it is, of course, a house of worship and Holy Mass is celebrated there every single day. So it was only natural that we made our way to the private chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for 24 hours of the day—an area that is reserved for private prayer. Here too, the splendor of the chapel is so ostentatious that there is no real focal point upon which the eye can rest. I tried hard to shut out my evaluation of the art for a while and get into a more prayerful spirit. About fifteen minutes later, we were out of the chapel and encircling the vastness of the basilica.

A visit to the basilica includes a descent into the basement to see the tombs of the Popes and it was here that we spent the next half hour taking in the grandeur of the various monuments that the popes constructed during their own lives with the hope of being remembered favorably. As we arrived in the midst of the 20th century, the monuments grew simpler and less ostentatious. Needless to say, the tomb of John Paul II was surrounded by visitors who prayed fervently for him. His tomb had single red roses strewn around it and, rather touchingly, several little folded petitions that were placed around its edges.

The Piazza de Navonna and the Pantheon:
Having seen St. Peter’s Basilica, we crossed the Pont Castel Sant Angelo (after which our hotel is named) towards the Piazza de Navonna to marvel at Bernini's immense contributions to the city. This time we were armed with our umbrellas but the rain had turned the temperature down considerably and it was no longer pleasant to stroll through the streets.

We had the Piazza de Navonna almost entirely to ourselves as we entered the Church of St. Agnes in Agones, a particularly significant place for me, as I had graduated from St. Agnes' High School in Bombay, India. This gorgeous church is special for the number of marble bas reliefs that encircle its interior, each more exquisite than the next. There is a lovely marble sculpture of St. Agnes shown at the stake where the flames miraculously divert themselves at her feet leaving her body untouched. In the crypt, there is another sculpture that depicts her with her long tresses covering her nakedness when she was paraded through the streets in Rome on refusing to give herself to the Roman official who desired her. That part of the church, however, was under construction and we were unable to see it. However, the church remained very special indeed and I took pictures to email to my batch mates who are connected now online.

Then, we were out in the piazza again, enjoying the four rivers personified by Bernini, in one of his many magnificent fountains, as aged giants. It was only a short walk from the Piazza de Navonna to the Pantheon and were arrived there in less than ten minutes. I do not remember seeing the interior of the Pantheon before and was surprised to discover that it is a church that houses the mortal remains of Raphael, one of the Renaissance's most prolific artists. Of course, it was by this classical design--a cube topped by a dome--that Andrea Palladio was deeply inspired in his own creation of the Rotunda in Vicenza, a building design that has gone on to inspire some other well known international monuments, such as Thomas Jefferson's home in Monticello, Virginia, the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC and the British Museum in London. Llew and I paused not just to pray in each of these churches but to take in their multi-facetted delights and it was always that we were bowled over by what we saw.

Darkness had fallen over Rome by the time we made our way back to our hotel after a very nice dinner at Hostaria Costanza in the Piazza del Paradiso which is very close to the Campo dei Fioro. Over a bread basket with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and some red wine, we had ourselves a good starter and then on we went to the main courses--Llew ordered Veal in a Lemon Sauce which was very good while I had a Tagliatelle Carbonara. Italian meals never disappoint and we badly needed that walk back across the Ponte Cavour to our hotel at the end of our deeply stirring day.