On my way to Rome again
Arriving in Rome for the 2026 Italy pilgrimage — Il Gesù, St Ignatius, a spontaneous confession with a Jesuit, and a first visit to the tomb of Pope Francis at Santa Maria Maggiore. (5 min read)
The woman sitting next to me on the Etihad flight was travelling home to Poland for the funeral of her 94 year old mother. She told me she lives in a small town in NSW and loves the quiet there. She was nice and light-filled and did not want her any condolences for her mother’s passing. We chatted briefly about Poland and I mentioned I had visited the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow and the salt mines. Not long after this she asked if I am a priest. How curious I thought. It must have been the church reference that triggered her. I said I was sure I was a priest in past lives. Not long after she was relocated to another seat giving me a little more space. After she’d gone I recalled the last time I was on a plane and asked if I was a priest was my 2013 mercy flight to Uluru in response to an unexpected inspiration in Brasil. In that case, I was sure it was a sign of St Ignatius supporting me on my travels and that was also the case this time.
The flights were fine but I did not sleep much. I caught the train from FCO to Termini without any trouble and decided I would take the metro to Valle Aurelia and walk to Casa Tabor. I had done this once the other way and remembered it was busy main roads but uneven footpaths but thought it would be ok. I was also mindful, at this time and throughout the day, that I need the pilgrimage to be simple and inexpensive out of respect for San Francesco. It wasn’t so easy getting from the station to Casa Tabor. Google Maps did not produce a direct route and I again remembered how much I had fought with it on previous trips. I dragged the suitcase up and down hills concerned doing so might reactivate the issues in my neck, shoulder and right arm but so far so good.
My room is on the eastern side of Casa Tabor and I can see the dome of St Peter’s from the bathroom and bedroom if I stick my head out a little. It is beautiful to sit in the morning light – as I am right now typing this. The valley below the house has an odd mix of vegetation which somehow works together and all catches the light beautifully.
First thing I did was walk to St Peter’s. I looked for San Francesco on the collonade without success but I spotted Ignatius and Xavier immediately. The experience made me think about the iconography of the saints and how the collonade is the logical starting point for this.
After St Peter’s square, I walked to Il Gesu. It wasn’t a direct walk. Rome has never been easy for me to intuitively navigate like Paris. The crowd was quiet and respectful at Gesu and I had some quality time with Ignatius and Xavier. I noticed there are new reliquaries of each in their chapels. On impulse I went to confession (my intention had been to do this in Padova) and I was not so well prepared. It was a good process confessing with a Jesuit – more of a conversation than usual. He couldn’t find any sins in what I was confessing but gave me absolution any way. It did give rise to questions about how well I understand sin and whether I’m too pious. I took great satisfaction in the priest being shocked and appalled by the anti-Islam comments of the ring-in priest in Coogee that I was struggling to forgive. Reflecting on the issue of Islamophobia made me wonder, embarrassingly for the first time, whether it may have past life origins – that the prejudice is carried over or some unresolved deep hurt. And this made me think, not for the first time, how useful it would be for people to understand the bigger picture and strive to clean up their unconscious past-life wounding.
From Il Gesu I walked (again not directly) to the Church of St Ignatius – which has now become a tourist attraction and was filled to the brim. It made me sad and the best I could do was pray that the spirits would help all who entered even if they were there for mundane reasons.
I quickly walked about the pantheon and then to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. The latter, like much of Rome this year, is undergoing renovations so I did not have access to the relic. All I could was be grateful that I had been there before and had direct access in earlier times.
After a simple, tasty vegetarian lunch in a cafe nearby, I walked up the Piazza Venetiza and looked down at the forum from the Capitoline Hill (also under renovation). Then onto the Colesseum which was crowded as usual and a quick visit to the new metro station with a museum quality display of artefacts found while building the metro.
I returned home via S Maria Maggorie where I visited the resting place of Pope Francis and made a prayer for my mama.
I returned to the monastery via a different metro stop (CIPRO) which was closer and interesting but involved a lot of stairs coming out near the Vatican Museum.
I slept very deeply with a break in between but hopefully am close to being in the Rome time zone now.
© Paul McCarthy & Iluminar.au
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