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Our last and full day was happy and sad. Happy because it was a great day and sad because we knew it was our last day together. We started out with a great blessing from God which was a surprise for us all. We had a Mass scheduled at St. Peters but when we arrived they asked if we would like to have the altar which is the tomb of St. John Paul II. What

Still reveling in the Supreme Court decision yesterday to overturn Roe v. Wade after 50 years. Hallelujah! Today is our final day together with our pilgrimage group. Tomorrow morning they fly home early. But today we cover some very important ground. We arrive at St Peter‘s Basilica at 7:30 prepared for Mass. Then Liz Lev took us on a lively tour of the largest and most beautiful church in the world. From there we go

On our first full day in Rome, we were joined by the inimitable Liz Lev, the art historian and superb Catholic guide for Rome. We began at St. John Lateran Church, which contains the Chair of St. Peter, the skulls of Peter and Paul, and it’s the “Mother Church of the World”. I explained the typology between the Old and New Testaments magnificently lining the walls. We had Mass in this grand church. Next we

Beautiful view of the Abruzzo Mountains from our breakfast window. We left the Excelsior Hotel in Lanciano and drove the one hour to Manoppello where we have the “Volto Santo — “the Holy Face”. We had Mass in front of the Volto Santo which is always a highlight of our pilgrimages to Italy. The Face Cloth of Christ was the cloth that was covering his face in the tomb. When his life came back through

The main portion of our a Oberammergau Passion play Pilgrimage through Germany, Switzerland and Italy has come to an end. Half of our pilgrims flew home this morning and the other half consolidated with us and one bus and headed south through Italy. We were sad to say goodbye to them all and to our Polish guides Olga and Yatzik and our two excellent drivers. They all did a marvelous job and will be working

Milan is the 2nd largest city in Italy and a beautiful one at that. Marvelous churches, history and architecture. So with great enthusiasm everybody started out at 9 AM for a walking tour of downtown Milan. We visited the bones of St. Ambrose at his church. Then to the Scalla Theatre which is the most famous opera house in the world. Mass today was at the magnificent Duomo, the cathedral of Milan, and it has