CDU Pilgrimage to Italy Deepens Faith, Friendships

On Aug. 31, 45 anxious and excited pilgrims gathered at Burke Hall at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More for brunch, following Mass, to meet the spiritual leader of the Catholic Distance University’s (CDU) 20th Anniversary Pilgrimage to Italy, Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde, chairman of the board and president of CDU, and to hear the final details of their trip.

They were joined by Father Paul deLadurantaye, diocesan Secretary for Catechetics and Sacred Liturgy, Father Robert Rippy, chancellor, and Brother David Eddy, the bishop’s secretary. Marianne Mount, CDU’s executive vice-president, also accompanied the group.

The group gathered on Tuesday, Sept. 2, at Newark’s International Airport for their flight to Rome. Once landed, Bishop Loverde gathered all the pilgrims and their luggage together to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for safe travel before boarding the bus for the first overnight stop.

After bussing to Tuscany to begin the pilgrimage with a four-day stay at Montecatini Terme, a picturesque city in the hills between Florence and Livorno, a Mass was offered at the local Basilica of Our Lady of the Assumption. Dinner and a birthday celebration for Bishop Loverde brought the first day to a joyous close.

The group toured Florence for two days and then traveled to Livorno on the Mediterranean coast near Pisa to retrace the steps of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s visit exactly 200 years before.

Msgr. Roger Roensch, director of the Bishops’ Office for United States Visitors to the Vatican, joined the pilgrims as a special guide for the day along with Father Gino Franchi, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish. Father Franchi raised the money and built the parish in a lovely residential part of Livorno.

After Mass and visit to the parish, the group visited the Protestant cemetery where St. Elizabeth Ann’s husband, William, is buried and passed by the former home of the Filicchi Family where Mother Seton stayed and saw the location of the Lazaretto, a building off the harbor where the Setons were quarantined because of a fear of Yellow Fever in New York. The location is now the home of the Italian Naval Academy.

After lunch with the Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Livorno, the group traveled to the Shrine of Our Lady of Montenero, the magnificent mountainous Benedictine Shrine of Our Lady, a place of special devotion and many miracles for the people of Tuscany. There Mother Seton experienced her conversion to the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist and thus began her journey into the Catholic Church two years later.

The next overnight stay was Assisi, in the hills of Umbria, that included a stop in Siena to visit the Dominican Church of St. Catherine and the Duomo Cathedral with spectacular mosaic floors.

On Sunday the pilgrims attended Mass at the Chapel of Peace in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, toured the Basilica and prayed at the Tomb of St. Francis.

The group visited the Church of St. Clare and the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels where St. Francis died. Some of the pilgrims took side trips to the Church of St. Damiano (where the crucifix spoke to St. Francis) and the convent where St. Clare died, as well as the caves high in the mountains where St. Francis used to go to meditate and retreat

To celebrate Our Lady’s birthday on Sept. 8, Bishop Loverde offered Mass in the Portincular, a small chapel within the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels, near the spot of St. Francis’ death.

From there, the group traveled to Rome for a four-night stay. The pilgrims traveled to St. Peter’s Basilica early the next morning for Mass in the Hungarian Chapel in the Crypt, followed by a tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.

The highlight of the trip was a Wednesday morning audience with the Holy Father, which began with Mass at the North American College, the sight of the group photo.

The pilgrims were overwhelmed with the privilege of sitting only a few feet from the Holy Father; two married couples in the group were brought forward to meet and receive a personal blessing from the pope.

George and Karla Pouliot, newlyweds from North Carolina, had the privilege of a papal blessing because they had been married within two months and were dressed in their wedding clothes; Doctor John Feegel, a forensic pathologist and CDU graduate student, was brought to the Holy Father in a wheelchair with his wife, Judy.

The remaining time in Rome gave the pilgrims an opportunity to visit places they had not seen or wanted more time to enjoy. One group traveled to Loretto for a Marian Pilgrimage while another group traveled to the Church of St. Paul Outside the Walls of Rome. Five pilgrims journeyed to Naples and Pompeii. The trip concluded with a dinner at a local restaurant that featured native dishes, singing and music followed by a tour of the fountains of Rome by night.

The graces of the pilgrimage included daily Mass, inspiring homilies, daily rosary on the bus led by the bishop and a growing devotion to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton that not only strengthened the bonds of friendship, but also deepened the faith of each pilgrim.

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