Ad Moltos Annos!

Wednesday evening the seminarians of the North American College came by for an introduction to the house. Our superior Monsignor Francis Kelly gave them a brief history of our house, noting that it is built on the site of the Roman Sentinals: firefighters and other peacekeepers of the city. The building was a Dominican convent built in the 1600's--even older than Interstate 5. Napoleon closed it, and in 1859 the building was given to the US Bishops by Pio Nono, Pope Pius IX.

We gave them tours of the building, and somehow the men in my group were a little skeptical to hear we had the oldest wireless network in the city of Rome, installed in 1860. We prayed solemn vespers in our primary chapel, and following the sumptuous dinner Cardinal George of Chicago gave a few words to all of us, speaking of our important role in forming a bridge between America and the rest of the world.