ROME – If he wasn’t studying for the priesthood in Rome, it’s likely that Nicholas Monnin would have been lying prostrate on the floor of his home parish, St. Matthew Cathedral in South Bend, instead of at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica during the Mass in which he was ordained to the diaconate. The seminarian for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend wasn’t complaining, mind you; St. Peter’s served as a magnificent backdrop for the ordination Mass. But while he couldn’t go home for the blessed occasion, home came to him. Along with Father Andrew Budzinski, pastor and rector of St. Matthew Cathedral, 16 pilgrims from the South Bend area – mostly parishioners from St. Matthew – traveled to Rome to support Monnin, a son of the parish, as the Sacrament of Holy Orders was conferred upon him on Thursday, October 3. Photos by Scott WardenFather Andrew Budzinski, pastor of St. Matthew Cathedral Parish in South Bend, and others take in the view of Rome from Capitoline Hill during a walking tour of central Rome on Wednesday, October 2. After their flights landed in Rome, the group began their pilgrimage on Friday, September 27, with Eucharistic adoration and benediction at Santa Brigida, which is dedicated to St. Bridget of Sweden and located in the heart of historic Rome. While Father Budzinski helped to organize the nine-day pilgrimage, which included a two-day trip to Assisi, he didn’t lead it. That duty belonged to St. Matthew parishioner Anthony Pagliarini, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame who previously lived and studied in the Eternal City. “It’s so different when you go on a pilgrimage and you’ve got somebody who speaks the language fluently, like Anthony speaks Italian,” said Debby Blum, who made the trip along with her husband, Randy. “Anthony is so knowledgeable. Instead of us having to continuously look and say, ‘Where’s such and such church, and what are their hours?’ he has all that information already, and he has been able to really connect so many of the dots about the culture and the history of the churches and the saints who lived there. It’s been exceptional.” While the Blums are parishioners at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in South Bend, Debby told Today’s Catholic that they visit St. Matthew Cathedral enough through their work at various apostolates that they feel like “honorary parishioners.” Debby serves as president, and Randy is the treasurer, of the South Bend chapter of the Serra Club, which aims to promote, foster, and affirm vocations to ministry in the Church. Anthony Pagliarini, who served as the group’s tour guide, stands in St. Mark’s Square, which overlooks the Victor Emmanuel II Monument in central Rome. The Blums celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary earlier this year, and they were planning on making a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi to mark their golden anniversary in 2025. Debby said they spotted a flyer for the pilgrimage on the bulletin board at St. Matthew during the diaconate ordination of Deacon Andrew Barnes. “We said, hey, we’ve celebrated our 49th anniversary, so we’re into our 50th year, why not go with the group from St. Matthew? It was perfect timing.” The Blums and the rest of the pilgrims began their first full day in Rome with Mass in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica before taking a tour of the most famous church in all of Christendom. The next day, they headed to Assisi, where they prayed at the tomb of the city’s most famous son, St. Francis, had a guided tour of the Basilica of St. Francis, and visited San Damiano, where Francis famously heard the call of God to rebuild His Church. Returning to Rome for the final four days of their pilgrimage, other highlights included: a trip to the Borghese Gallery; a visit to the crypt church of the Franciscan Capuchin Order, which has six small chapels decorated with the bones of thousands of deceased friars; a tour of Mamertine Prison, where, according to tradition, Sts. Peter and Paul were held captive in Rome; a guided tour of the Vatican Museums; a visit to the Scala Santa (or Holy Stairs), which tradition holds are the stairs that led up to the praetorium of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem on which Jesus Christ stepped on his way to trial during His passion; and visits to various churches that held relics – or full tombs – of a number of saints, including the apostles Philip and James, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Monica, St. Ignatius, and St. Catherine of Sienna, to name a few. Randy Blum said he and his wife made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2019, and the trip to Rome and Assisi complimented that journey well. “In the Holy Land, we were able to see the origins of the Church,” Randy said. “And when you come to Rome, you see the fruits of the Church when you visit the places where the saints lived and died, and so it has been a really nice continuation from one pilgrimage to the next. It’s been an exceptional experience.” A centerpiece of the pilgrimage was, of course, Nicholas Monnin’s ordination to the diaconate, which was held at the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Despite not being able to attend the ordination himself because of his commitment as a delegate to the Synod of Bishops on synodality, Bishop Rhoades said he was thrilled that parishioners from the diocese were able to travel to show their support of Deacon Monnin. “I’m so happy to see them here and that they are able to experience the history in Rome, that they’re able to pray at the tombs of St. Peter and Paul, and just to experience the Italian culture, which I think is something I really learned to love. And then to be at the ordination in St. Peter’s Basilica of a native of our diocese and a son of St. Matthew’s Parish is really a remarkable opportunity that they’ll never forget,” said Bishop Rhoades, who studied in Rome as a seminarian and was also ordained a deacon at St. Peter’s. Pagliarini, the Notre Dame professor who led the group, said he was happy to help introduce the Eternal City to members of his home parish. “Rome is an amazing city on many fronts – artistically, architecturally, historically – and sometimes you can lose the theological amidst all those other treasures,” Pagliarini said. “And so what I hope that we were able to do in this trip is to zero in on the lives of the saints, places of significance to the faith, so that the pilgrims take home the sense of the antiquity of the Church, the universality of the Church, and the continuity of the Church across time.” While Deacon Monnin’s ordination to the diaconate was not at St. Matthew in South Bend, his ordination to the priesthood, God willing, will be. “I was delighted to have folks from St. Matt’s to celebrate my ordination with me,” Deacon Monnin told Today’s Catholic. “And it is as much a celebration for them as for me. My vocation grew and was nurtured in that community, and it is very much a fruit of their prayer during my years of seminary. I’m grateful for their presence and support.” The post Local Pilgrims Walk with the Saints in Rome, Assisi appeared first on Today's Catholic.