Our trip is finally ending. Storms are rolling in. It will be raining tonight. We leave for the airport in the morning. This has been a wonderful day. It began with mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the altar and crypt of John XXIII which is just to the right of the main apse. Our presider was Bishop Tobin who has served in the Congregation for Religious and is returning to the US. Today, it turns out, is the feast of Theresa of Avila. What a fitting ending to this trip and personally meaningful. Theresa, one of the four women doctors of the church, taught us all so much about spirituality and how to be a woman of faith.
We then went to the rooms where the Protestant observers of the council stayed, in the Piazza Novona. There we were greeted with two professors, one very active in the Lutheran/Catholic dialogue and the other in the Islam/Catholic dialogue. The essence of this dialogue, they said is this: to be friends in our differences. We concluded with lunch and final thoughts from Ed Hahnenberg.
I am changed in some ways I am sure. There will be a difference in the way that I talk about the Council. There are new images and new ideas that I am working with. In future posts I will share these with you as they develop. I continue to believe in the work of the Council and in many ways have discovered that the laity are those who are bringing it to life in our day-to-day practice of our faith.
Ciao from Rome.
