Bob's Your Pope! (Roma part Tre)

The first full week of Leo XIV’s papacy occurred while we were in Rome. We hadn’t planned it that way having arranged this trip last year, before the late great Papa Francesco was even ill.

But here we are, among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists. 

We also didn’t know it would be Mother’s Day on our first Sunday here.  And on our second Sunday, well, that was Pope Leo’s first mass in St Peter’s Square, where 200,000 people crammed into the Square and spilled down the street toward Castel Sant'Angelo, better known as Hadrian’s Tomb.  We were miles away, thank the gods.

But it was fun to see all the pageantry of the Pope’s first Mass, held for the throng outside on the steps of St Peter's Basilica.  

On television. 

We did not attend. 

This was also the moment when he was given the pallium (a kind of shepherd’s crook only gold) and the ring of the fisherman that symbolises his direct connection to the first pope, St. Peter.

Let me back up to the preceding Saturday: before the big celebration in the Square. We decided to visit the baths of Caracalla - the ruins of, that is.  These baths were the second largest in ancient Rome, after those of Diocletian.  They were free and open to the public, with daily visits by six to eight thousand bathers.

The Baths of Caracalla

We were wondering why many of the busy routes around the Colosseum were blocked off, not knowing about a parade about to happen. On our way to two other churches (there were purported mosaics worth seeing), it soon became clear to us that something big was going on: dozens and dozens of volunteer first aid workers, lots and lots of police.  After finding both churches closed and the roads around them crowded with costumed and uniformed people, we realised we’d stepped into the middle of the Jubilee of Confraternities, featuring 100,000 faithful from 100 countries around the world.  They parade their religious statues through the streets, some so heavy it takes 100 men to carry it, with bands playing and children in costume, proceeding from just about where we were down past the Colosseum and into the site of Circus Maximus.

Look at all the men carrying that thing!

We decided to wait another day to visit the churches.  We fled.