The Rome Experience

This Rome Reports video profiles “the Rome Experience.”

What’s the Rome Experience? It’s a program that brings American seminarians to the Eternal City for several weeks to study and to get acquainted with the place where the Church is centered.

“Seeing the importance of the Latin heritage — the language, the culture, and not just that, but the beauty and the art and the history of what Rome is and how that can be unifying aspect and a culturally enriching aspect,” Colorado seminarian Ryan O’Neill comments in the video. “As a Catholic, I just only knew the parish or the diocese I lived in.”

And the cuisine in Rome isn’t too shabby either, Ryan adds.

“The food has just been very good,” he chuckles. “We’ve had pasta constantly, and that hasn’t been a problem for me.”

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis