New trip to Rome

I'm back in Rome for a meeting between the Holy See and the World Council of Churches. I'll be here for just a few days.

I flew Air Canada from Toronto yesterday and got to my residence on Via della Traspontina in Rome at around 11 am. Given it was Sunday I wanted to make sure I got to Mass, so I attended the "international Mass" at Santa Maria in Transpontina just before lunch.

Then a solid siesta after lunch, to recover a bit from the flight. I bought a jubilee souvenir for someone back home, and made sure to get a pic of the church down the street as the sun was setting.

The meeting is for the Joint Working Group between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches, and I was very happy to see Archbishop Vicken Aykazian of the Armenian Orthodox Church, who is my counterpart as Co-Moderator of the group.

Supper was a nice time to reconnect with people, some of whom I had not seen in person since our meeting in Geneva last year, and some I was meeting for the first time. Of course, no celebratory meal is complete without gelato, so that's how we ended our evening.

The wild comes to the suburbs

I was out for my walk this morning and I saw our neighbourhood had a visitor! He probably followed the train tracks and didn't expect to be in the suburbs. Just another day in northern Ontario. Beautiful.

A couple of my confirmandi

Fun bishop moment! I was at Boston Pizza with our deacon candidates and a woman came over to introduce herself. She was there with her daughters, and apparently I had confirmed two of them! So I went over to say hi and mom took this picture (shared with her permission). Nice!

Confirmations in Gore Bay

I was in the small church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Gore Bay this afternoon, to celebrate Confirmation for two candidates. Congrats to both of them!

While there, a parishioner showed me a relic she rescued from a dealer on eBay. I examined the wax seal, and it (and the threads) were unbroken. Based on the writing style it seems to be from the Holy Roman Empire, but that's just a guess (albeit an educated one).

Most importantly, the relic seems to be a fragment of the True Cross. If so, this is exceedingly rare. She has donated the relic to the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, and I am going to do my best to have the seal properly identified and dated. Many thanks for this generosity!

Visit to Mom

I visited with my mom this past weekend (Sunday, Aug 17). We went to Mass in the morning at St. Pat's, where she lives. Mom loves being with people, and was so happy to be there.

Visit with Amy Dignan

 I had a lovely visit twith Mrs. Amy Dignan, a relative of Ralph Hubert Dignan, the second Bishop of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie. She is donating some artifacts from Bishop Dignan that were passed down since his passing in 1958. Thank you Amy!

Assumption Mass at the Grotto

We had a lovely Mass last Friday for the feast of the Assumption (Aug 15). It was held outdoors at the Grotto in Sudbury, and the weather was perfect. A large crowd attended, the largest I've ever seen at the Grotto. I even had trouble finding parking - a nice problem to have!