The Book of Bishops (Vigneron - Still More)

 Just like this coming year (2025) 1975 was a Holy Year. 

That means that pilgrims from around the world, people of faith, make a special journey to Rome and the four major basilicas (St. Peter's, St. Paul outside the Walls, St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran) become important stopping points in the journey. Each of these sites has a Holy Door which is ceremonially opened at the start of the Holy Year and those making the pilgrimage enter these places through the Holy Doors.

For some time I had been talking about and hoping for an opportunity to make a trip to Europe. Friends also spoke of the possibility but, sounding like true Detroit's supporting major sports teams from this city, the response was predictably "But wait until next year."

We talked; we dreamed; we waited.

It seemed always to be next year.

Well, in 1975 I decided that I was not going to just sit back and wait until next year. Without asking anyone else, informing anyone else, I struck out on my own. The Archdiocese of Detroit was sponsoring a pilgrimage that year and I just went ahead and signed up for it. I figured that this  would finally get me across the Pond and onto European soil. I had no idea of who else might be going on this trip but I also figured that they would be locals, we could get to know each other and perhaps some of us just might already know some of the others.

What did I have to loose?

As an added bonus that was also within the timeframe in which Allen Vigneron, then a deacon, was fresh back from Rome and doing his final year with me at St. Clement of Rome in Romeo.

He could give me a few tips in terms of traveling Rome and Italy.

And I was not wrong. Not by any stretch.

He provided me with instructions for getting around, for how to enjoy various dining experiences in the Eternal City, for sights to see and how to see them efficiently.

He introduced me to the wonders of another St. Clement of Rome - the Basilica a short distance from the Collosium. This gem is an all too often ignored or forgotten treasure  for exploring so much of Rome's history. In this treasure I have presided at Mass in the upper basilica (medieval) and the lower basilica (5th century?) and walked ancient Roman streets.

He also introduced me to a now long-gone family operated Italian restaurant in  Detroit, no real signage and based in a neighborhood house but one with the finest, freshest home-made pastas and sauces. Oh, and the place did not even have a liquor license. However, they did somehow manage to serve "light" and "dark" coffee in pots, poured into coffee cups and flavored anything but coffee-like!

By the time I was finally headed to Rome, I was well prepared, perhaps better than most and that was thanks to the now Archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron.

There is still more to come . . . soon . . .