Halloween at the Vatican

CNN just played the scariest story I’ve ever seen. I’ll probably mess something up through here, but I’ll try it to sort it out. If the electoral college tied (a possibility), and the popular vote was so close that it caused major legal conflict in various states than the Presidential vote would go to the House (which is a 1 to 1 state ratio). The Senate would vote in the VP, so Bush could end up w/Edwards (The Good-Ole-Boys of DC?). Even more frightening, there’s some loophole, probably connected to the legal conflicts, that could actually put the VP in as Acting Commander and Chief.
I think the most frightening thing was that this was an editorial on a news station.
I’m watching a story on Istambul’s Rammadan traditions now. This global channel has a lot of neat stories like that. I’m jealous.
You’re probably more interested in today, and what a day it’s been. I’m trying to kill time and wait for mom to call, but I’m not sure she’s going to get through, so I’ll try and push through it.
At 5AM we got up and were off to the Vatican to stand in line for the museums. We stood there from 7:30 until 10:30, wrapping from the north most museum entrance all the way down to the Via di Porta Angelica. It’s been unseasonably hot, and rose from about 65 to 75 degrees during the few hours we were out there.
This is my second time in Rome, I think I’ve told you that before, so I’ve tried to look at things through a slightly different lens. Our hotel, with it’s blue-print floor, satellite TV, and American plug in the bathroom is about as close to the US as you can get in Italy (except maybe the Embassy). Our neighborhood is probably the opposite, and with Mary here it’s pretty easy to see the contrast. She talks to everyone in friendly English, and gets everything from friendly responses to frustration or even frightened glares. It doesn’t seem to phase her, though. She makes a good tourist.
She amused herself by talking to a few of the people around us, but the Japanese group behind us didn’t speak English or didn’t want to, and the Spaniards in front of us offered the frightened look I mentioned earlier. So I kept us busy by filling in the finer points of Catholicism and church history to her from what I’ve read over the past summer or two. Tiff’s started calling me the most Catholic non-Catholic she knows. I’m still trying to decide how to take that one. At the time I think I muttered something about historical significance or some such nonsense.
We did not take the short way to the Sistine Chapel at all. We wound through the Egypt Collection, the Greek & Roman Collection, the Raphael Room and so on down the line. I kept trying to explain things to Mary as best I could, but I think I’m going to have to buy several big books for her and Tiff both. Mary at least seems interested, Tiff still wraps herself up in an air of apathy whenever she’s not looking at some ruins or something gargantuanly Baroque. Lucky for her, there’s plenty of both in the Vatican.
When we finally reached the Sistene Chapel, Tiff’s response was something along the line of “Well, it’s not what I expected…”. I gave her the “you-did-not-just-say-that-about-this-historic-and-impressively-masterful-artwork” look and took a few more illegal pictures. After walking the length of the chapel and really soaking it in, though, she eventually expressed more grateful approval for it. She’d just imagined it as one continuous piece. I don’t know why.
Anyway, the Sistine Chapel provided a new perspective and a better appreciation after having looked at it in our art class. It was quite different to actually understand the significance of the paintings, rather than just taking them at face value. The ultra-realness of the perspective is, I think, what may still draw crowds today.
Ok, the Tourist Bureau helps too.
We wound through a few more collections on the way out and then shot down to the Vatican. Lucky us, the Pope had decided to give an address today. I got to see Pope John Paul II from his little window!! I have no idea what he said, but I still got to see him and the absolutely massive crowd gathered to hear him speak. I couldn’t help but wonder how many were left over from yesterday’s protest, and whether he sat by one of his other windows to watch it go by.
After listening to a lot of Italian that we had no hope of understanding we toured St. Peter’s. Mary really enjoyed the scale and was utterly fascinated by the crypts, Tiffany’s developed a pretty good taste in sculpture, and I was just happy to take it all in again. We wandered by Michelangelo’s Peitre and all the other pieces. I’m actually recognizing names like Bonnichi now, even if I can’t spell them. He was a sculptor and architect, by the way.
The Vatican will always invoke a certain spirituality in me. Holiness isn’t the right word, really, because the Catholic Church has many things that I don’t equate with Godliness. But the sheer spiritual energy, the focus of billions of worshippers over thousands of years, is still an amazing force to behold. It must be how the early church must have felt, when confronted with Jerusalem’s Jews and the Roman Pagans. Of course, that brewed hostility, but it also built bridges. Jewish tradition and Pagan thought both have their places in Christianity, especially in the traditions of the Catholic church, but applicable to the broader Christian community as a whole. Not that we should be circumcised (please, not that), but the Jewish tradition on which the Bible is built still shines through in many of the beliefs carried from it today. Of course, I think it was the Greeks and the Romans that invented the preacher. Yes, there was Paul the Jew, but even he had connections to Rome. It was there –here!- that this gigantic chunk of world culture took its first steps, and only Jerusalem has a closer claim to its birth.
It is, in short, a place every Christian should be. It is a place to remember, and to look forward.
It’s the Eternal City.

I got swept by a tangent there. I hope you enjoyed it. After visiting St. Peter we meandered our way up to the Papal Residence and bought more souvenirs. Then a quick ride to the bus brought us back here for some rest before our evening visit to the Pantheon. This gigantic Roman temple was built to honor all the gods, but not by us. It closed before we got there. So dinner in the nearby plaza, and delicious Gelato for dessert served to round off another well paced day.

By the way, if you ever plan on going anywhere in Europe by night, reserve your tickets well ahead of time. I think tomorrow we may have to sleep on the night train standing up because we didn’t.