| Walking through Rome in the early morning is interesting. Here some street vendors set up their stall to attract the tourists heading for St. Peter's Basilica during the day. |
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| I had to take the subway from the Maryknoll house to the Ottoviani station and then walk across St. Peter's Square to the Synod Hall. Here is St. Peter's just a bit after sunrise. |
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| The opening address of the conference on The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church. Notice the four standing interpreters using the conference's Spanish, American, Italian, and French Sign Languages. Each interpreter also appears on one overhead monitor. |
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| In addition to the four main sign language interpreters, 11 or 12 other interpreters were dispersed throughout the 570 people in the synod hall to interpret into less used sign language such as Maltese Sign Language. |
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| Deacon Pat Graybill, a professional deaf actor and a university professor, giving one of the major talks on the social and cultural aspects of deafness. |
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| Fr. Cyril Axelrod is a deaf Redemptorist priest from South Africa who lived with Charlie Dittmeier for almost two years in Hong Kong. Now both deaf and blind, he lives in a deaf-blind community in London. Notice how he holds the hands of his interpreter (left) to feel the signs rather than see them. |
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| The Italian meeting hours are different from those of the United States. We started at 9:00 AM and went to 12:30 PM when we had a long lunch break. Here the participants head across St. Peter's Square to eat before the afternoon session from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. |
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| Another part of Vatican City, between St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. |
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| During the long break, Charlie went to the crypts under St. Peter's Basilica to see the tombs of the popes. This is the actual tomb of St. Peter. |
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| After visiting the basilica, Charlie met with Fr. Savino Castiglione, a very good friend and the head of an Italian missionary group that works only with deaf people. Savino was responsible for a lot of the organizing of this conference. |
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| The Paul VI Hall is famous for its solar power system installed on its broad level roof. An electronic display inside shows how much power is being generated and how much oil and CO2 emissions are being saved. |
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| The conference meetings for today ended long after dark. |
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