Like the star over Bethlehem

A small pilgrimage to the Shrine in Belmonte: Sunday 18 September 2005

18 de septiembre: llegando al Santuario en Belmonte, Roma

September 18: Arriving at the Shrine in Belmonte

18. September: Angekommen beim Heiligtum in Belmonte

Se ve el campanario! Belltower in sight! Glockenturm gesichtet!
En camino al Santuario On the way to the Shrine Auf dem Weg zum Heiligtum
Entrada Entrance Eingang
En construcción Under construction Im Bau
La puerta se abre… The door opens… Die Tür öffnet sich...
Renovación de la Alianza Covenant Renewal Bündniserneuerung Fotos: Donnelly © 2005

ROME, Simon Donnelly. To get to the Belmonte Shrine in Rome by public transport is not too difficult, but it takes a while. Especially on a Sunday, when the buses are fewer.

I get onto a thin, quick bus (number 190) in the middle of the city. This bus heads west and north. I was carefully following my joint brochure from the two Schoenstatt shrines in Rome on how to get there.

Ah, but this bus was a "190 X", i.e. Express. Attenzione! This bus doesn’t stop at all stops! I saw several passengers baffled as they tried to get off at stops that we simply roared past. "It says X! X for Express!" shouted the driver.

I said to him quietly: "I’d like to get off at Boccea/Framura". "Come?!" says the bus driver. Literally, How? which means What?? When I get this reaction, I always feel like I’ve just made up some impossible word, or invented a place that could never have existed in Italy! He doesn’t seem to know Framura.

Different approach: "Umm, I want to change to the 905". "Ok, change at Galeotti". [Note: for pilgrims on foot: if you catch an Express bus, this is useful information!]. And I guess one should know the phrase: "Please can you tell me when to get off?" This particular driver was very nice, and told me exactly where to.

I can’t go wrong now, because I can see the small cross on top of the Shrine’s tower

Then the second bus of the Sunday afternoon: the 905 is built like a tank—a giant, longer-distance sort of affair. All very nice, except you can’t read the bus stop signs, because they’ve been flattened against the narrow street walls, to avoid being ripped right off by passing traffic, including by this bus! So, you have to have special speed-reading powers, or be able to interrupt the busdriver, but he seemed to be deep in a complicated private conversation with a passenger.

"Umm, I want to get off at Cellulosa/Santa Gemma". "Ok, fine". After a while I see a Schoenstatt sign outside the window, but not a word from the driver. "Um....?" "Yes, get off at the next stop. We’ve passed your stop already". Argh!

Why, my Lord, do you ask me to do this? Now I have to walk up a hill, and ask around! But there is always a reason (other than learning patience!). Look what I would like to show you, Simon. As I come puffing back up the hill, I catch the first glimpse of the belltower of the new Shrine, peeking between the trees. So lovely! It’s how every pilgrim must feel—real pilgrims, who’ve walked hundreds of kilometres—when they catch sight of their holy destination. There are walls & fences and trees between us, but I can’t go wrong now, because I can see the small cross on top of the Shrine’s tower. Like the star over Bethlehem.

Recalling the thousands of Schoenstatters who were in this field a year ago

I finally round the corner, where Fr Kentenich stood, giving his talk to the Schoenstatt family in 1965, and receiving from them the symbolic gift of a future Shrine in Rome. The bright yellow sign put up in September last year for the blessing of the new Shrine is still there, fighting for space among other signs! (And it’ll probably still be there in 20 years time). Finally, a map announcing the "International Schoenstatt Centre, Belmonte".

And there, in the middle of a field of grass, all by itself, stands the brand new Shrine, waiting for pilgrims to come in (with its little sacristy building next door), waiting for the new community that will be slowly built up around it. But I see no one! Maybe I have the wrong time or the wrong day?

When I finally get there—recalling to myself the 1000s of Schoenstatters who were in this field a year ago to celebrate the birth of the new Shrine—I see that the Shrine is already full! There are many ladies from the surrounding area praying the rosary.

Mrs Teresinha Abram looks out of the door to see which new pilgrim has come along. I am made to feel very welcome by her husband, Nivaldo, and I discover again a piece of my spiritiual home, so far from my physical home.

Our Lady already has a small piece of her international family here

Soon, we settle down on this late summer afternoon to Holy Mass, celebrated in Italian by a Brazilian priest, by Schoenstatt Fr Ludovico Tedeschi (from Argentina, of Italian roots), and by a French-speaking priest living in Rome. A visiting group of young men play the guitar and sing hymns in Spanish and Portuguese. I quietly think South African thoughts to myself (in English!). Our Lady already has a small piece of her international family here. It’s a wonderful place this, our church within the Church. I think Fr Kentenich would be very happy. And I think our Holy Father Benedict would be happy too.

After Mass, outside the Shrine, we burn the slips of paper on which people have written their spiritual sacrifices, from the huge jar which was filled many times over last year ("Fill the jars!"). Then we go on our way, refreshed, back out into the world.