As I mentioned in my last post, I spent several days last week in Rome and Assisi. I was visiting Assisi because the bishop there, Bishop Domenico Sorrentino, has been inviting me for some time to participate in their local social justice conference and to celebrate a Pentecost Mass at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which is a Capuchin parish and the place where Blessed Carlo Acutis is buried.

I arrived in Rome on Thursday afternoon and met with the new officials of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors: Secretary Bishop Luis Manuel Ali Herrera and Adjunct Secretary Mrs. Teresa Kettelkamp. We are delighted to have them on board.

They have been in the process of meeting with representatives from the different dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and they reported that it has gone very well.

It was interesting to see that they are getting ready for the Jubilee Year in Rome. The papal altar is all shrouded in scaffolding and tarps, and the Holy Door is sealed.



Visiting Assisi

Friday morning, a Capuchin brother from Assisi, Brother Boniface, drove us there.

The church in the central square of Assisi was the Temple of Minerva, which is now a church of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.

We stayed at the Capuchin monastery there, which is just across the street from the Sacro Convento.

The Sacro Convento is connected to the Basilica of St. Francis and is the original monastery of the first followers of St. Francis and the papal palaces that were built there. The popes used to spend a lot of time in that palace until Napoleon. Apparently, there were so many problems, difficulties, and insecurities in Rome that the pope had palaces all over the Papal States, and one of them was in Assisi at the Sacro Convento.

When you look at this view of the basilica, you see the basilica to the right, and to the left are the colonnades, which are the Sacro Convento and the papal apartments.

We had a beautiful view from the room I was staying in.

We had Mass at the tomb of St. Francis.

The early followers of Francis are buried around where he is buried. They are all in the lower basilica there at the four corners next to the tomb of St. Francis. [ . . .]



Social Justice Conference

Saturday, we had the Social Justice Conference. Every year, they give a grant to some organization that is involved in social justice ministry. This year, the money went to the Capuchin Friars' mission in the Amazon. There was one friar from the mission who happened to be there, so he received the award in the name of the mission.



Pentecost Mass

Sunday, we celebrated the Pentecost Mass in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.

There were a number of government and military officials present for the Mass. We were also very happy to be joined by Msgr. Tony Figueiredo, who had been very helpful in arranging the trip.

Several years ago, Bishop Sorrentino entrusted this church to the care of the Capuchins. It's a historic church, but it was never one of the places people would visit when they went to Assisi. It was the original cathedral, and it is very probable that St. Francis was baptized there. However, they took the baptismal font and put it in the new cathedral, San Rufino.