There are 34 of us participating in the ‘Institute for Continuing Theological Education’ (ICTE) here at the North American College here in Rome.\u00a0\u00a0 Our group includes priests from across the US and Canada, as well as a gentleman from Australia and two priests from American Samoa.\u00a0\u00a0During one of our days of orientation we learned that the median age of priests participating in ICTE is 52, and the average years of ordination is 25.\u00a0 I fall short in each of those by one year.<\/p>\n
And we’re a diverse group.\u00a0 The most senior member of ICTE is 80 – his name is Fr. Alex.\u00a0 In addition to a plethora of ministerial experiences, he speaks five languages.\u00a0 He casually mentioned that, when someone asked him why at 80 years old he wanted to participate in ICTE, he simply said: “Because I want to learn.”\u00a0 He’s a great man, extremely humble, and an inspiration to most everone else on the institute.\u00a0 There are also six recently retired US Navy chaplains who are using ICTE as the first step of their transitioning back to civilian life; after 20-25 years in the military, they look forward to a change … but also realize how difficult it will be.\u00a0 Each of us on the institute has a lot to share and a lot to learn – and we’re all eager to do both!<\/p>\n
The past six days have basically been spent getting to know each other and in numerous orientation sessions.\u00a0 In the orientations we’ve learned a lot about the Roman ways of doing things (which differs from the American way).\u00a0 Also, we have covered practical things such as health coverage – which, although I may have health insurance through Medical Mutual, the Italians don’t accept it.\u00a0 As a result, health-care for everone on ICTE is a ‘cash only’ thing.\u00a0 Needless to say, we’re trying to be very ‘health conscious’ so that none of us needs to use the Italian health system.<\/p>\n
I think most everyone in our group is in the process of losing weight!\u00a0 While the seminary food is quite good, and restaurant food is even better, the basic mode of transportation is ‘bipedal locomotion!’\u00a0 We’ve all commented about how much walking we’ve done.\u00a0 In fact, today (Sunday 9\/12) four of us just returned from a six-hour walk around the areas of Trastevere, the Jewish Ghetto, Piazza Navona, and countless places in-between.\u00a0\u00a0 (At this rate, I hope the single pair of good walking shoes I brought lasts through the entire sabbatical!)<\/p>\n
Having completed our orientation, classes begin tomorrow (Monday).\u00a0 We start of with a two-hour tour of the history, architecture, and art of St. Peter Basilica.\u00a0 Then, throughout the week, we’re going to continue our immersion in Roman and Church history at both the Roman Forum and the Vatican Museum (which is one of the largest holdings of art and history in the world).\u00a0 While many of us on the institute have an appreciation for what we have already seen, we look forward to having our understanding broadened with the insights of several resident scholars – who will be navigating our outings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are 34 of us participating in the ‘Institute for Continuing Theological Education’ (ICTE) here at the North American College here in Rome.\u00a0\u00a0 Our group includes priests from across the US and Canada, as well as a gentleman from Australia and two priests from American Samoa.\u00a0\u00a0During one of our days of orientation we learned that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":68,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-236","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/236\/revisions\/237"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trask.co\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}