Vital Situation

Rome, you may have heard, is an old city, sometimes seeming like it's been around for an eternity, and today we confirmed not only that all roads have been leading here for a long time, they've been repaved more than once.

San Vitale originally was built at street level, or maybe even a little bit above. Today, however, you have to descend 34 steps from the Via Nazionale to get in the front door, as you may be able to make out from this photo. The white wall to the right indicates where street level currently is.

Father Tim presided and preached today. He noted that we were able to do today what John Cardinal Fisher never could. Pope Paul III had made him a Cardinal, with San Vitale being his titular church here in Rome. He was never able to celebrate Mass here, though, as King Henry VIII of England had locked away him in the Tower of London since the year before. John apparently took his namesake, John the Baptist, pretty seriously: John the Baptist had been thrown into prison for questioning King Herod's marriage--Bishop John Fisher did the same thing when Henry VIII found it easier to split with the Church than to split with new woman he was seeing after bailing on his wife.

A cardinal is given a new hat (red), and of course John was not going to be able to come to Rome to receive it. There was question of sending it North, but Henry commented that were it to arrive John would be wearing it on his shoulders . . .

The hat didn't show up, but Henry reaffirmed his propensity to split things asunder--one month after Paul III had named John a cardinal, Henry knocked John's head off--on June 22nd, the day before John the Baptist's feast day.

Remarkably, today is the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, celebrated since the fourth century as a sign of the unity of the Church founded on him by Christ. (Next week is the feast of the overstuffed sofa . . . actually, the name corresponds with some of the photos earlier on this blog--the presider's chair indicates leadership.) With Peter being given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt 16:17-19), John Cardinal Fisher recognized that Henry might say the way is shut, but God has already made some key decisions: "I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open" (Isaiah 22:22).