Three seminarians from the Diocese of Charlotte are studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where along with their studies they are getting the opportunity to experience life in Rome. They have visited Notre Dame in Paris, Munich, Germany, and participated in a 5K race around Vatican City. (Photos provided) ROME — Running a 5K around the Vatican, visiting the Christmas market in Munich, and seeing churches connected with some of our faith’s most well-known saints. These are a few of the experiences three seminarians from the Diocese of Charlotte – John Harrison, Gabriel Lugo and Ronan Ostendorf – have had since they began studying in Rome last fall.
The three men arrived in Italy last July. They spent time studying Italian in Assisi and traveling to historic landmarks and holy sites before beginning their studies on Oct. 1.
Since then, their days have been filled with rigorous academic work, prayer and contemplation – and free time to take part in sports, social activities and travel around Europe.
Their time in Rome also included a brief but memorable meeting with Pope Francis, an encounter that only included time for handshakes and a few words but has stuck with the three men.
Their love for the Holy Father is so real that during his recent illness, the three traveled to Gemelli Hospital, where he has been battling double pneumonia, to pray for him. They also wrote him a letter offering their prayers and best wishes.
“It was an honor to show our support for the Holy Father during this critical time, and to do so representing everyone back at home,” Harrison told the Catholic News Herald. “We prayed a rosary for him, commending him to the protection and care of our Holy Mother, Mary.”
Their studies require the three seminarians to learn bilingually. Their studies include classes in English on the Holy Trinity, an introduction to Church law, the Acts of the Apostles and moral theology. In Italian they study fundamental theology, the liturgy and ecclesiology.
While academics are the main focus, there also is time for exploration, they said. The three regularly get around Rome on foot, bikes or scooters.
They have visited holy sites around the country and traveled to the Dolomite mountains in northern Italy. They’re also getting to see Europe. Visits have included Notre Dame in Paris and Munich, Germany, during the Christmas season, where they visited Christmas markets and an impressive LEGO store, Harrison said.
The four also donned blue shirts and got some exercise while running a Thanksgiving 5K “around a country” – the Vatican!
Lugo described some profound spiritual insights he experienced while visiting churches in Rome on the feast days of their patrons.
“It re-inspired in me the awe of Rome,” he said. “I prayed before the bones of St. Sebastian and of St. Paul and was reminded that Rome’s true glory is not the architecture or the paintings, but the blood and sufferings of the saints by which they still give constant witness to Jesus and the truth and power of His redemption.”
Ostendorf said he has been consistently reminded that “God watches over and governs all things that He made, gently disposing them according to His will.” He described an experience that made this truth evident to him while he was on a day trip with a fellow seminarian to Fossanova, an abbey about 60 miles southeast of Rome.
Upon stepping off the train, Ostendorf’s friend met a priest he knew. As a result, the two seminarians were able to sing for a Mass the priest celebrated in the chapel where St. Thomas Aquinas had died.
Harrison, meanwhile, says that despite the busyness of daily life, he has been learning about the divine quiet and peace that come from an encounter with Christ.
“Our Lord taught me a great lesson this semester on the beauty of silence. It sounds ironic, considering how busy life has been in moving to Italy,” Harrison said. “But the blessing of being able to experience so many things comes with a challenge of maintaining silence and simplicity of heart throughout all the exhilarating adventures.”
“This challenge is like keeping a candle lit in the middle of a storm at sea, as the crashing waves will extinguish the flame immediately if you don’t protect it,” he said. “And so, in visiting Notre Dame or the jolly Christmas markets in Munich, the preservation of silence has allowed me to keep these things in perspective, spending these experiences falling more in love with our Creator. It has also shown me that our happiness does not lie in these experiences, but in being silent and attentive as St. Joseph was before the wonders of God’s providence.”
— Christina Lee Knauss
