{"id":3879,"date":"2006-03-22T08:56:53","date_gmt":"2006-03-22T08:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/03\/hey-ive-been-there.html"},"modified":"2006-03-22T08:56:53","modified_gmt":"2006-03-22T08:56:53","slug":"hey-ive-been-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/03\/hey-ive-been-there.html","title":{"rendered":"Hey! I’ve been there!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Paulson’s blog on Archbishop O’Malley’s morning:<\/a><\/p>\n

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The cardinal-designate this morning led the Boston press corps on a walking tour of the Ponte Sant’Angelo (the Bridge of Angels), which he said was one of his favorite spots in Rome (in part, he confessed, because "it is a footbridge, so you can walk here without worrying you’re going to get run over by a motorscooter.") The lovely span, over an unappealingly greenish Tiber River, is more than 2,100 years old, sits just beneath the imposing Castel Sant’Angelo, and features a series of statues of angels symbolizing moments of Jesus’s passion.<\/p>\n

The walk was more than a bit stagy. Archbishop O’Malley gamely allowed television crews to place five (!) battery packs for wireless microphones in the deep pockets of his brown habit and to hide their cords under his long brown hood. The archbishop then joked that he was so weighted down with audio equipment that, "if I fall into the river, I’ll sink to the bottom," and, as he submitted to a final wiring by a late arrival, mused, "I just hope I don’t get struck by lightning."<\/p>\n

But the walk was nonetheless a chance for the archbishop to talk about his relationship to the Eternal City, which he said he has visited often for pilgrimages and meetings over the last 40 years, although he has never lived here. He said his favorite churches, where he likes to pray, are the fantastical Il Ges\u00f9, which is the main church of the Jesuit order and includes an altar dedicated to St. Ignatius of Loyola; the Chiesa Nuova, where St. Philip Neri is buried; and, at night, the Santa Maria in Via Lata, where, legend says, St. Paul lived for a time. <\/p>\n

"So much of our history is here, that it really is a very edifying experience to be in Rome,” he said. "It’s the center of Christendom. There are so many symbols of our faith, and the example of the martyrs and the early Christian writers. As many times as I’ve been here, it never gets old. It’s always exciting to come back. It’s always a thrill.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Wikipedia on the bridge, with a list of the angels and the instruments of the Passion which each carries<\/a><\/p>\n

An interesting 360 panoramic image. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Paulson’s blog on Archbishop O’Malley’s morning: The cardinal-designate this morning led the Boston press corps on a walking tour of the Ponte Sant’Angelo (the Bridge of Angels), which he said was one of his favorite spots in Rome (in part, he confessed, because "it is a footbridge, so you can walk here without worrying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHey! 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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