Of course the purpose of the first international conference of the Society of Catholic Priests was not simply sightseeing, eating drinking and embarrassing ourselves in a way we couldn’t at home (not exclusively anyway), there was a serious side to the three full days (7am starts!). St Paul, pictured above, would not have approved and we weren’t about to argue with a statue with a sword.
The theme of the conference was ‘St Paul in Rome’ and our speaker, Dr Paula Gooder gave us three excellent bible studies on St Paul’s letter to the Romans.
St Paul didn’t fare as well as we did in Rome. You will recall that he was taken to Rome as a prisoner (and not on Alitalia) and no doubt subjected to endless queues at immigration, as I was. Above we see the chains which bound him during his incarceration. Below we see into his gravesite at what is now ‘St Paul’s Outside the Walls’ where Vespers was sung for us and we were made most welcome.
Father M 