The Angelus Strengthens My Love for the Pope

JAMES FANGMEYER

Perché Roma?” My new friends and classmates in the Eternal City frequently ask me why I had to come all the way to Rome for seminary formation. Why not stay in the USA? Fr. Peter Harman, our former rector, always gave a clear answer to this question: We come to Rome to grow in love for the Holy Father

My class arrived in Rome wearing masks and bearing negative Covid test results. We stayed within the walls of the NAC for 14 days of mandatory quarantine. On the Sunday after quarantine ended, I walked with my classmates to the Vatican to meet the Holy Father and pray the Angelus with him. We each shook hands with Pope Francis in the Apostolic Palace. Two years later, I still can’t believe it—on my first day “free” in Rome, Pope Francis

‘24, ARCHDIOCESE OF WASHINGTON

welcomed me to his home! Then we descended Bernini’s scala regia, passed the Swiss Guard and exited out the portone di bronzo into St. Peter’s Square to pray the Angelus with a few local Romans. Thus began my Sunday tradition of praying the Angelus with the Holy Father.

The Angelus prayer celebrates the incarnation through Mary’s humble obedience. It entreats the Holy Spirit to pour into our hearts. Catholics pray the Angelus at 12 p.m. every day to remember that God promised to be always present to us, even in ordinary circumstances (Mt 28:20). The structure of the Angelus, including Bible verses and Hail Mary’s, naturally lends itself to call and response between a leader and a congregation. The Pope leads the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square at

12 p.m. every Sunday. Normally, thousands of pilgrims and Roman faithful join in the square, and thousands more join on Youtube via live language translation.

Each Sunday before he prays, the Holy Father gives a brief homily from the day’s Gospel. One Sunday last year the Gospel recounted when James (my patron) and John asked Jesus to sit on his right and left in his kingdom. Pope Francis spoke to me when he preached: “We are in front of two different types of logic: the disciples want to rise up and Jesus wants to immerse Himself...Baptism means immersion: through his Passion, Jesus immersed himself into death, offering his life to save us. Therefore, his glory, the glory of God, is love that becomes service, not power that seeks to dominate...Thus Jesus ends by saying to his disciples and to us as well: "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant" (Mk 10:43).

As I prepare for ordination at St. Peter’s Basilica in a few months, re-reading that homily and returning to my memory of hearing it gets me fired up! The Angelus strengthens my faith and love for the Roman Pontiff. I know that Pope Francis prays for me when he prays the Angelus. He was already my Pope, but in the Angelus he became my father. The universal pastor, the Roman Pontiff, exercises his priesthood on me! I love that! I get to be part of his flock. That is why I came all the way to Rome for seminary formation. n the letter reads:

Most Holy Father,

The undersigned students of the American College of the United States offer volunteers to Your Holiness so that you deign, during the siege, to enlist them in the army, to preserve the sacrosanct rights of the Holy Roman Church.

Below the date is the response of Pius IX. He wrote:

May God bless you, and give you the grace and courage to fight His battles.

The Stones of Rome

“I will sprinkle water upon you… Take out your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.”

-Ezekiel 36:25,

26

Storied stones strain to tease Their history on cobbled streets –Shuffled in the bustled shouts And squares that brim and wax with now.

Screens scream their ads and fads And neons bounce off colonnades. A gray and fleeting new ignores Celestial gates shaped as doors.

But through the doors and in the rooms, Adorned with paintings amply strewn About the chapels, lies entombed An old, a faint – but saintly – hue.

What good are bones when they are dried, Deprived of life, of strive, of drive To run their race, to fight their round, Or make pursuit of hallowed crowns?

But from their hue, a heav’nly breath

That showers down, heals, atones And recreates the hearts of flesh In storied stones who come to Rome.

Brian Schumacher ’26 Diocese of Salt Lake City