Michael Paulson’s blog on Archbishop O’Malley’s morning:
The cardinal-designate this morning led the Boston press corps on a walking tour of the Ponte Sant’Angelo (the Bridge of Angels), which he said was one of his favorite spots in Rome (in part, he confessed, because "it is a footbridge, so you can walk here without worrying you’re going to get run over by a motorscooter.") The lovely span, over an unappealingly greenish Tiber River, is more than 2,100 years old, sits just beneath the imposing Castel Sant’Angelo, and features a series of statues of angels symbolizing moments of Jesus’s passion.
The walk was more than a bit stagy. Archbishop O’Malley gamely allowed television crews to place five (!) battery packs for wireless microphones in the deep pockets of his brown habit and to hide their cords under his long brown hood. The archbishop then joked that he was so weighted down with audio equipment that, "if I fall into the river, I’ll sink to the bottom," and, as he submitted to a final wiring by a late arrival, mused, "I just hope I don’t get struck by lightning."
But the walk was nonetheless a chance for the archbishop to talk about his relationship to the Eternal City, which he said he has visited often for pilgrimages and meetings over the last 40 years, although he has never lived here. He said his favorite churches, where he likes to pray, are the fantastical Il Gesù, which is the main church of the Jesuit order and includes an altar dedicated to St. Ignatius of Loyola; the Chiesa Nuova, where St. Philip Neri is buried; and, at night, the Santa Maria in Via Lata, where, legend says, St. Paul lived for a time.
"So much of our history is here, that it really is a very edifying experience to be in Rome,” he said. "It’s the center of Christendom. There are so many symbols of our faith, and the example of the martyrs and the early Christian writers. As many times as I’ve been here, it never gets old. It’s always exciting to come back. It’s always a thrill.”
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