Mons. Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula the Great

One of the finest priests you will ever meet in Rome or the Vatican is this man, Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula.

Monsignor Barreiro is the director of the HLI Rome office and does a lot of good for a lot of people.  If one word describes him it is "wisdom."  Monsignor is always cheerful, nice to everybody, available for advice and consultation and welcomes Rome students to make use of his fine office library. 

Monsignor is from Uruguay, has two doctorates, speakes a lot of languages and  was a diplomat in the foreign service of Uruguay for some years and worked at the U.N.  John Card. O'Connor ordained him priest in 1987 and since 1998 Monsignor has been director of the HLI Rome office.  He is a theologian, diplomat and pastor. 

One of my best Rome memories is back in the nineties attending the Sunday morning Porta Portese market and then walking to the Mass in Trastevere that Monsignor offered at Santa Maria della Pace, where he celebrated Holy Mass according to the Usus Antiquior every Sunday morning.

Today, Monsignor celebrates Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form every Sunday morning at the Rome Church of  San Giuseppe a Capo Le Case, located near the Spanish Steps (where via Francesco Crispi meets via di Capo Le Case), at 11 a.m. 

When the Church is Purged

"What we often forget is that all the judgments of God begin with the Church, as they began with Israel."

-Archbishop Sheen

Rome Baroque Festival 2009

Baroque music returns to the churches and palaces where it was born...

See here and enjoy: http://www.romafestivalbarocco.it/index.php/it/Edizione%202009

Nobody Knows Beauty Like Catholics: Ottobeuern Abbey in Germany

"The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb.  Better witness is borne to the Lord by the splendor of holiness and art which have arisen in the community of believers than by the clever excuses which apologetics has come up with to justify the dark sides which, sadly, are so frequent in the Church's human history.  If the Church is to continue to transform and humanize the world, how can she dispense with beauty in her liturgies, that beauty which is so closely linked with love and with the radiance of the Resurrection?  No.  Christians must not be too easily satisfied.  They must make their Church into a place where beauty - and hence truth - is at home.  Without this the world will become the first circle of hell."

-The Ratzinger Report, p. 129.

Rome Tomb of St. Robert Bellarmine

Once I had the honor to kneel here in prayer with my grandfather, also named Robert.   

Carmel in the Vatican

St. Peter's Square

Mozzetta and Mantelletta

Tenor of the Times and Why the Religious Habit Matters

"Hence the more ardently they unite themselves to Christ through a self-surrender involving their entire lives, the more vigorous becomes the life of the Church and the more abundantly Her apostolate bears fruit.  A life consecrated by a profession of the counsels is of surpassing value.  Such a life has a necessary role to play in the circumstances of the present age."

-Perfectae Caritatis, 1.

From the Vatican City: Parents Bring their Newborn to the Vatican to Celebrate

Faith, HOPE, Charity.