ROME
National Catholic Reporter
Robert Mickens | Sep. 2, 2016 A Roman Observer
ROME
All roads lead to Rome.
And one in particular — actually a sky path from Kennedy Airport in New York to the Leonardo da Vinci Airport at Fiumicino — brought me here exactly 30 years ago this week.
It was Aug. 30, 1986.
(And but for a year in Switzerland with a Franciscan-Dominican non-governmental organization at the United Nations and six-month sabbatical in the United States, here I have been ever since.)
The date is easy to remember because on the previous day, when we 36 young American seminarians actually left our native land for the Eternal City, it was the liturgical feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist.
We would sometimes wonder as we went through unexpected moments of ups and downs during those first months here if the date hadn’t been some sort of an omen.
Then later it would become apparent to all of us that, indeed, many people did sometimes lose their heads (at least figuratively speaking) in this ancient city of saints and sinners. We also learned in time that Rome is a place where some lose their faith.
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