Madonna della Fiducia
Posted on 02/24/2006 5:43:47 PM PST by NYer
ROME, FEB. 23, 2006 (Zenit.org).- During this first year of Benedict XVI's pontificate, Romans have been delighted to see the continuation of many of Pope John Paul II's traditional appointments in the city. This Feb. 25, the Saturday before Lent, the Holy Father will commemorate the feast of the Madonna della Fiducia, at the Roman Seminary.
The Madonna della Fiducia is a simple little devotional image, painted by a religious sister in the 18th century, which has accompanied the Roman Seminary from its first home in the Collegio Romano to its present home at St. John Lateran.
The Madonna's fame grew during World War I when the Roman seminarians, after being drafted into service in the Italian army, gathered in her chapel and made a vow to her before being taken off to war. Only one seminarian returned and the dog tags of the fallen were incorporated into the image as rays around the Madonna and Child.
Over the decades, many popes have visited the small chapel from time to time, but John Paul II visited the Roman Seminary and the Madonna della Fiducia every year during his pontificate. And now the seminarians are busily preparing for the first visit of Benedict XVI.
The festivities formally commence with first vespers when all the new men receive their cassocks. The extensive preparations begin much earlier and include polishing the candelabra, taking out the special carpet and preparing the designated vestments.
The morning of the feast, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar of Rome, concelebrates Mass with the alumni of the seminary. Then after a long and elaborate lunch (this is Italy) everyone gathers in the courtyard for the arrival of the Pope. The same seminarians who seem so recollected and reserved in the streets of Rome, greet the Pontiff with the cheering and screaming that most young Romans unleash in the soccer stadium.
The Pope prays in the Fiducia chapel before joining the seminarians in the main chapel where the students perform an oratory written for the occasion. This event is so important that hundreds of alumni return for it every year.
An out-of-the-ordinary alumnus returned for the Madonna of Fiducia this year -- the last American priest to have been ordained from the Roman Seminary. Father Christopher Smith was ordained July 23, 2005, and is now serving at St. Mary's Parish in Greenville, South Carolina, which was celebrated in George Weigel's 2004 book, "Letters to a Young Catholic."
Americans are very rare at the Roman Seminary. Father Smith is only the 23rd American to be ordained for a U.S. diocese since the seminary's foundation in 1564. I spoke to Father Smith shortly after his arrival, curious to know how a young man from South Carolina found his way to the Roman Seminary.
"Although I became a Catholic at age 13," he told me, "I grew up in a fundamentalist Protestant environment. During my studies at Christendom College, I was introduced to the theoretical world of Catholicism. But I had this great desire to live at the center of the Christian world in the universal sense and to understand what the 'Roman' in 'Roman Catholic' really meant."
Father Smith came to discover that "Roman" means a good deal more than a large Italian city. "Just as the Roman Empire governed a huge territory containing diverse languages, philosophies and customs to a common purpose," he said, "so the Apostolic See has united people from all over the world under a common Truth, guarded by one person, the Roman pontiff."
We spoke about how this Roman experience was reflected in his home parish. Father Smith observed that he felt "a vibrant sense of the Roman charism of unity as fostering communion across all the various borders in his parish -- whether ethnic or social."
He went on to note that after seven years here, "the examples of the Roman saints and martyrs are not pages in a book to me, but part of my present. The living tradition handed from Roman to Roman is something that I carried back to my parish."
I asked Father Smith about his own devotion to the Madonna della Fiducia.
"When I first went to the seminary, I was struck by my fellow students keeping vigil day and night in the chapel," he replied. "'Fiducia' means 'confidence' and for us it meant confidence to pursue our vocation."
He then added an intriguing observation about the Madonna's continuing role in his ministry.
"As a newly ordained priest, I find myself trying to help people in various life crises," he began, "and when faced with complicated problems, instead of thinking I can come up with all the answers, I give people the holy card of the Madonna so we can pray to her together."
Father Smith also noted that the Madonna della Fiducia "helps people to reorient their thinking towards God's providential design in their lives which the Mother of God can give them confidence to see."
His final observation regarding the Madonna delighted the art historian in me.
"When you look at the image of Madonna and Child, Jesus looks out at the viewer while pointing directly at his mother," he explained. "In this way he exhorts us to trust in him the same way his Mother did."
* * *
A New Gateway
The stern, high walls that greet visitors to the Vatican Museums can make for a strange and slightly off-putting first impression of the Holy See. Those who have stood in the long line to enter the museums will remember the seemingly endless bastions stretching around Vatican City. But this month, the forbidding expanse of brick has been relieved by a new gateway, inaugurated on Feb. 10.
Four shining bronze panels form the new entrance designed by Gino Gianetti, and informally dubbed the "Porta Santa Rosa." The site of the doorway, in the northern walls facing Piazza Risorgimento, exploits the same point in the walls where an opening had been made 75 years ago to develop the business area of Vatican City.
The wall was opened the same year as the Lateran Pacts, the agreements between the Holy See and the newly formed Italian state signed by Mussolini and Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, secretary of state to Pius XI, on Feb. 11, 1929. The gateway, however, was later closed.
The new door constitutes the first public work of Benedict XVI. The door boasts the papal coat of arms and bears the inscription, "Benedictus XVI Pont. Max. Anno Domini MMV Pont. I." The new portal will be used to allow pedestrians and traffic to exit from the underground Santa Rosa parking lot during rush hour. It seems that no place in Rome is safe from traffic jams.
But the news flashes and press statements surrounding the creation of an entryway serve as a reminder that there are very few portals and gates in the Vatican walls and that those bastions have a very long history. In few places in the world does the addition of a door make news.
The site of St. Peter's tomb has been protected by walls since Pope Leo IV built the "Leonine Walls" in 850, in the wake of an attack by pirates. The remains of those fortifications which surrounded St. Peter's and extended down to the river, were transformed into the "passetto," the enclosed passageway from the Apostolic Palace to the fort of Castel Sant'Angelo in the late 15th century.
The return of the papacy from Avignon in 1378 to Rome after a more than 70-year absence brought numerous changes to the area around St. Peter's Basilica. The former residence of the popes at St. John Lateran had been severely damaged, and perilous uprisings in the city convinced the popes to move into the Vatican district and construct defensive bastions. The walls we see today recall this difficult and dangerous period in papal history.
Around St. Peter's Basilica, several gates were opened. St. Anne's gate by the parish church of Vatican city opens into the Borgo neighborhood, and the Bell Arch in the facade of St. Peter's allows access to the sacristy of St. Peter's, the Teutonic Cemetery and the Vatican Gardens.
Over the years, other portals have been added to allow for automobile traffic and a special gate was also made for the Vatican train station. The opening of the Vatican Museums in 1932 required a special entrance by the architect Momo. Before the Porta Santa Rosa, the last entryway to be made in the Vatican walls was in 2000, when John Paul II inaugurated the new entrance to the Vatican Museums, dug out of the Vatican hill and designed to ease the tremendous lines to the museums.
St. Peter's Basilica stands in striking contrast with the fortified residential zone of the papacy. The tomb of the "Prince of the Apostles" has always been accessible and welcoming to all.
One of the most beautiful surprises in the city of Rome awaits those who make the trek along the heavy bastions and through the forest of columns of the colonnade. Passing from dark brick to shadowy columns into the bright light of St. Peter's Square, pilgrims experience the welcoming embrace of St. Peter's Square, assuring them that whatever the temporal concerns of the papacy might have been, the popes are always mindful of their charge from Christ to "feed my sheep and lambs."
The chapel altar. If you look closely, you can see the priests' dogtags in the frame.
The story about Father Christopher Smith brings to mind that even the most intense concentrated effort by the Prince of Lies cannot dishonor one of our good Priests.
What worse can the Lavender Mafia do than does the Lord of the Flies? The very Gates of Hell?
They've been rehearsing since last April :-).
Thank you for posting this. Liz Lev's articles are always interesting.
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