Tombs and Cardinals

12 January 2015

Today was a very full day for the deacon class.  We started the day with mass at the altar of St. Sebastian, which has the body of Pope St. John Paul II.  Following that, we had a classroom session, followed by a scavi tour.

The scavi are the ruins of the 1-3rd century graveyard that was filled in to make the Constantine basilica, which was then replaced by the current structure.  Unfortunately since there are still people buried there and very delicate frescos (in your best Italian accent) No Photo!

After the tour through the ruins, which includes the highlight of seeing the Tomb of St. Peter and a quick dash through the grottos where most of the people who have funeral monuments in the upper church are actually buried, we met with Cardinal Comastri, the archpriest of St. Peter's.  Following that we had a meeting with the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, and Cardinal Turkson stopped in to say hello and gave us about 20 minutes of his time.

Tomorrow we are off for our one and only class field trip to Montefiascone, where we will be staying overnight with the Institute of the Incarnate Word.  We are unsure if we will have wi-fi, so tomorrow there may not be a new post.

-Deacon John Powers.

P.S. I cannot resist the urge to self-promote.  If you are interested in following my own blog for the Rome trip, the link is here.