| This morning I went to the offices of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health Care in the Vatican to pick up my identification and materials for the conference which began the next day. At least once every time I am in Rome, I walk from the Vatican to the Maryknoll house at the north edge of old Rome, and I did that this morning. In the evening many of the conference attendees gathered at the English College near the Tiber River for a pre-conference event and a dinner. |
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| At the Pontifical Council offices I ran into Fr. Salvatore and Fr. Savino Castiglione, who was the prime local organizer of the conference. Both men are members of the Piccola Missioni, an Italian religious group that works only with deaf people in Latin America and Asia and in Italy. |
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| On my walk home, I crossed the Tiber on this bridge and then took the photo looking back toward Castel Santangelo, a famous Vatican landmark that appears in Dan Brown's book set in Rome. |
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| In the distance the dome of St. Peter's Basilica is visible through the arch of this bridge over the Tiber River. |
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| In the evening we went to the English College established in 1579, the oldest English institution outside of England. During the days of the persecution of Catholics in England, young men were trained here in Rome and ordained to go back to minister secretly to the Catholics in England. 44 former students suffered martyrdom in the College's first 100 years. |
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| Our group first celebrated a liturgy in the College's ancient chapel. |
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| After the liturgy, there was a dinner for us in the dining room of the venerable College which now has 36 students studying there. |
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