Pope Benedict XVI leaves on Saturday afternoon for a two day trip to Aquileia and Venice. Christopher Altieri is in Aquileia, and filed the following report Saturday morning:Aquileia: a city steeped in history – founded in 180 BC as a military outpost to protect Roman allies during the city’s wars to consolidate control over the Italian peninsula, the colony grew rapidly and eventually became the third city of the Empire, a centre of commerce and a cultural crossroads for centuries. (RADIO VATICANA REPORT)
Today, Aquileia has the dimensions of a quaint and quiet town – that is, until one comes upon the piazza del capitolo: the “Chapter Square”, that stands hard-by the Basilica of Aquileia. The soaring structure of the church has stood for a thousand years and more, and is built upon the ruins of older buildings, going back to the time of the Emperor Augustus. In fact, the earliest worship building on the site was a “house church” – a domus ecclesia… though it was no humble abode. Rather, it was a sprawling Roman villa belonging to a wealthy and important family in one of the wealthiest and most important imperial cities. Patient and painstaking archeological work has preserved and continues to preserve these physical testaments to the Christians who pledged their all: their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, to practice and to spread the faith throughout the whole world.
As the archpriest of the basilica and pastor of the basilica parish, Monsignor Michele Centomo explained during my visit to the basilica ahead of the Holy Father’s arrival, the Church in Aquileia is the mother Church, to which Christian communities from throughout central Europe trace their origins.
These Churches are coming together in 2012 to address the most pressing questions facing them singly and as a family dedicated to evangelization – and the guidance of Pope Benedict XVI is an indispensable part of their work, which begins in earnest with Pope Benedict XVI’s visit and remarks this afternoon in Aquileia.
“You confirm our faith”: this is the theme of the Holy Father’s visit to Italy’s northeast, as Mons. Centomo told me.
Strengthening the brethren is an essential part of the mission of Peter in the Church, and it is the key of this visit to Northeast Italy, which begins in Aquileia, before changing scene to Venice, the great patriarchal see that traces its roots to St Mark the Evangelist.
After venerating the relics of St Mark on Saturday evening, the Holy Father will retire for a few hours’ rest before an open-air Mass at the Parco san Giuliano in Mestre. He then has lunch with the bishops of the region and in the afternoon of Sunday, takes part in the conclusion of the diocesan pastoral visit of the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Scola. Following the concluding assembly, the Holy Father will travel by Gondola to the basilica della salute to bless the restored Chapel of the Holy Trinity and inaugurate the library of the Studium Generale Marcianum, the patriarchate’s recently created centre of learning and culture that aims at preserving and furthering the Church’s vision of true wisdom as knowledge informed by charity.
All this, when Pope Benedict XVI’s brief, but intense visit to northeastern Italy to confirm Christians in their faith and engage the culture from within begins in just a few short hours.
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