Our Pilgrimage to Rome
Phil and Faye Filiatrault

(…) We arrived in Rome on Monday (August 7^th) in time for dinner after settling into our pre-selected rooms in Domus Pacis. In one half of the large dining room were 200 English speaking pilgrims from the USA, Canada, and Australia. On the other side of the room were 200 French speaking pilgrims mostly from France and Switzerland. Excellent meals were served efficiently. With our group were three District Superiors: Fr. Emily, Fr. Scott, and Fr. Violette. Completing our group of priests were Fr. Nicholls of Arcadia, California, Fr. Frank Kurtz of Houston and Fr. Hogan of Australia. Three consecutive Masses were said in each of two chapels daily beginning at 5:00 a.m. followed by breakfast and departure on the charter buses, which was at 8:00 a.m. sharp.

We proceeded to St. Peter’s Basilica Tuesday morning.  No charter buses were allowed in the city center during the Holy Year. We walked a lot! We were blessed with beautiful sunshine each day, the temperature was 30 to 35 degrees Celsius.

St. Peter’s Basilica, of course, is awesome!  It is the most majestic building in the world. The splendid square and colonnade, Bernini’s finest work, form a superb entryway to the greatest church of Christendom, dominated by the magnificent dome of Michelangelo. The Basilica stands over St. Peter’s tomb and the spot where he was martyred. It also houses the tomb of many Popes which we could access by a doorway leading downstairs.

As close to the main altar as possible, our group of 175 to 200 people would stand or kneel to recite the Rosary, usually lead by Fr. Peter Scott, sing the Credo and the Litany of the Saints. Prayers were also said in front of the Michelangelo’s Pieta and the monument to Pope St. Pius X.

In the afternoon, after lunch at our hotel, we were bussed to St. Paul outside the Walls Basilica. It was built outside the ancient Roman City walls, over the burial place of the Apostle of the Gentiles, Saint Paul. The chains that once bound the Apostle while he was prisoner at Rome are in a golden reliquary. The Crucifix that spoke to St. Bridget of Sweden is in this Basilica.

The church is entered by way of a colonnaded forecourt which leads into the porch with mosaics high up on the façade, with the Holy Door on the inner part. The interior of the church is dark, since the alabaster windows admit little light. There are 265 portrait medallions of all the Popes, from St. Peter onwards, on the upper walls above the columns.

Wednesday we departed at 6:00 a.m. for the Basilica of St. Mary Major for a Mass celebrated by Fr. Scott for our group in the beautiful St. Pius V side chapel. This magnificent Basilica is built on the spot where a 3^rd century Pope witnessed a miraculous midsummer snowfall. It was long believed that the church came to be built when the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to Pope Liberius and ordered him to build a church in her honor. It was to stand on the spot where snow would fall on the night of August 5^th.

Reliquary of the Holy Cross, in the Basilica Holy Cross in Jerusalem

After the tour of this Basilica and the usual Rosary, Credo and Litanies at the main altar, we were handed a bag breakfast.  We ate it, sitting outside on the stone stairs enjoying the warm sunshine.  Needless to say how many other tourists and pilgrims were everywhere. Later, as we approached the Basilica of St. John of Lateran, about a mile from St. Mary Major, we noticed the assembly of over 200 men in black cassocks and roman collars lined up four men wide. Those were our SSPX seminarians and priests followed by our four Bishops who were walking side by side. They were followed by some 100 nuns in black and 6000 SSPX pilgrims. They were leaving in a procession with the police escort towards St. Mary Major, from whence we had just come. That evening the event was front page news in Rome as well as on T.V. Everyone in Rome was aware that the Society was in town!

The Basilica of St. John of Lateran is the Cathedral of Rome. The façade claims the status of "Mother and Head of the Churches of the City and the World".  The heads of St. Peter and St. Paul are in a reliquary above the high altar. The head of St. Agnes is in the Sancta Sanctorum.

On Wednesday afternoon the great highlight of the trip was a Pontifical High Mass with Bishop Fellay as the celebrant in a park where Nero’s palace once stood. Christians were martyred by being tarred and set on fire to provide the lighting for his lavish night parties. The wall of the Colosseum was in full view where so many martyrs also died in the early centuries.

Sitting among the nuns before the Mass began, Faye found Catherine Gerek, a former parishioner who had just taken the habit of the SSPX Oblate Sisters. Oh how happy she is in her new vocation… she just radiated! We also saw Fr. Loren Gerspacher, the District Superior of South Africa, another vocation from our small chapel in Langley, B.C.

Bishop Fellay gave the 50 minute sermon in five different languages. Such grace, dignity and substance! This whole celebration of the Mass and Communion was a grace-filled and edifying experience!

Thursday morning saw us visit minor basilicas such as the Basilica of The Holy Cross of Jerusalem. The church shelters relics of the Passion, i.e. 3 large pieces of the Cross of Christ, a nail from the Cross, thorns from the crown of thorns, part of the inscription on the Cross "Jesus of Nazareth", some stones from the cave of the manger in Bethlehem, the index finger of St. Thomas the Apostle and a portion of the Good Thief’s cross.  Under the main altar are relics of St. Caesarius and Anastasius.

We visited Santa Prassede, a 9^th century church.  The treasure of this church is a portion of the scourging pillar at which Jesus Christ was scourged.  The only gothic church we visited was the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.  St. Catherine of Sienna died here in 1380, her relics are enshrined beneath the main altar.  The sarcophagus is surmounted by a reclining statue of the Saint.Pope St. Clement VII’s tomb is also in this church in a choir chapel.

The Scala Santa – The Holy Stairs.  The Empress Helena (335 A.D.) had sent the stairway that Jesus had several times gone up and down during the day He was sentenced to death by the Praetor Pilate.  Thus, it was later called the Scala Pilati.  One meditates upon the Passion of Jesus while climbing the twenty-eight stairs on one’s knees with a contrite heart and pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, thus receiving a plenary indulgence. After reaching the last step of the Holy Staircase, we then face the Sancta Sanctorum chapel, which contains the Archeropite Image, which is to say, an image not painted by human hand.

Other churches visited were the Gesu Church, the Ignatius Church, the basilica of St. Sebastian built above the catacombs, the Chapel of Domine Quo Vadis which marks the spot where St. Peter, fleeing Nero’s persecution in Rome, encountered Christ and asked Him: "Domine quo vadis?" (Whither goest Thou, Lord?)  Christ replied: "I go to Rome to be crucified again."  Ashamed of his fear, Peter turned back to Rome where he was crucified.  This little chapel contains a copy in stone of the footprints left by Christ that day.

The catacomb of St. Callixtus was interesting. It contained the bodies of nine early Popes in a special room, as well as the grave of St. Cecilia. Because of gold seekers in the sixth century, the remains were removed to churches throughout Rome for safekeeping. This was the largest catacomb, with 5000 buried there. Sixty-seven similar catacombs exist throughout Rome.

The small chapel of the Three Fountains impressed us greatly. It is located on the site where St. Paul was beheaded.  The post he was tied to is in one corner of the church. Three small altars against the wall about 12 feet apart cover the three fountains that sprung up where St. Paul’s head bounced after he was beheaded. (…) What gripped me greatly was the full wall picture near the entrance depicting St. Paul looking up to heaven while tied to the post. The executioner is poised to strike him with a hand hatchet… Being with Fr. Violette, I asked him: "How many blows did St. Paul sustain before he finally died?"  Father replied: "Who knows how many martyrs were beheaded this way as compared to those martyrs with their head on the block hit by one blow by a big axe or those beheaded by the guillotine in France?"

H.E. Bishop Fellay celebrating the Pontifical High Mass in Nero’s garden	Pilgrims listening to Fr Stehlin’s sermon in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran