Day Three Photos and Update

From John Shaughnessy, assistant editor of our weekly newspaper, The Criterion:

ROME--Mary Ann Kent wiped away tears from her eyes just moments after she participated in a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin in the chapel above the tomb of St. Peter in St. Peter's Basilica.

Kent couldn't think of a better way to celebrate her 66th birthday on June 28 than this special part of the archdiocesan pilgrimage to Rome.

"It's beyond words," said Kent, a former member of Annunciation Parish in Brazil who moved to St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Mount Vernon, Ohio, after marrying her husband Pat five years ago. "Peter gave his life for us so we continue to have his Church, and we're here. The Church is truly blessed."

Pat Kent also showed his emotions after the Mass in the chapel where the front of the altar displayed an image of St. Peter being killed for his faith.

"We dreamed of coming to Rome five years ago," Pat said, recalling when they were married after the deaths of their spouses. "To come and to be able to be at this Mass and the Pallium Mass on Saturday is beyond my dreams. This didn't even make my bucket list because it was too improbable."



Archbishop Tobin with the archbishop
of San Francisco speaking briefly
at a reception hosted by the office
of the  U.S. ambassador to the Vatican for U.S.
 archbishops on the eve of the pallium Mass.

Having the Mass in the chapel near St. Peter's tomb was arranged in connection with Archbishop Tobin receiving his pallium from Pope Francis during a special Mass at St. Peter's Basilica on the morning of June 29--the feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul. The pallium--a circular band made from lamb's wool--is a symbol of an archbishop's communion with the pope and his role as the shepherd of an archdiocese.

In that role as shepherd, Archbishop Tobin used his homily to caution the people in the packed chapel about keeping their focus on their faith instead of the site where they practice it.

"And here we are, most of us from central and southern Indiana. We might miss the point," the archbishop said to family members, friends and the 80 pilgrims from the archdiocese who are making the pilgrimage to Rome that began on June 25 and ends on July 2. "Because what we're doing here is allowing the Lord to revive our faith, to reconnect us in the ever more profound way of his Church, to recognize him in the sacraments.

"We're asking the Lord as we represent the Archdiocese of Indianapolis that he open our eyes and our hearts to where he is most opening a door for us today. So we return to our Church with great renewed energy for insight into our mission in southern and central Indiana."

That renewed energy flowed through the pilgrims after the Mass. Benedictine Sister Juliann Babcock expressed the feelings of many of her fellow pilgrims when she said, "I thought it was a holy experience. Just very beautiful."

Archbishop Tobin reflected on that early morning celebration of the Mass later in the evening of June 28--a time when the pallia that will be given to first-year archbishops are placed on an altar near St. Peter's tomb, where they will remain through the night.

"I was conscious of being a pilgrim, renewing the eternal covenant with my people, standing just a few feet from the tomb of St. Peter and a few hundred feet from his successor," the archbishop said. "I realize in all the churches of central and southern Indiana that we are united in the same way through the body and blood of Christ."

See a photo gallery from Day Three of the pilgrimage