[Gocamino] Saint James in Brooklyn.

[Blaroli at aol.com]

Hello you all,
The Cathedral of Saint James in Brooklyn held a solemn funeral Mass for the 
departed Pope.  During the homily,  it was remarked that John Paul II had been 
a Santiago pilgrim and an ardent supporter of the Camino.
I'll try to answer some of your questions,  with the caveat that, although a 
life-long Catholic, I am not very knowledgeable about the hierarchy in the 
Church, or related matters.  I am sure that many subscribers know about these 
things much more than I.
Anyway,  Monsignor Barrio of the Santiago Cathedral is not a Cardinal; he is, 
however, an Archbishop.  The Cathedral of Santiago is not a Basilica, nor is 
Saint Peter's in Vatican City a Cathedral; it is a Basilica.
As I understand it, any church deemed deserving of such honor can be a 
Basilica, such as the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City and the 
Basilica of Nossa Senhora Aparecida in Brasil.
To be a Cathedral the church must have a sitting Bishop (or Archbishop, or 
Cardinal - while Cardinals and Popes may be bishops, it doesn't work the other 
way around-).  The work "Cathedral" comes from the Greek word "cathedra" which 
means chair.
While the Pope was Bishop of  Rome his Bishop's chair was in the Cathedral of 
Saint John Latrine, which is a much older church than Saint Peter's, and a 
highly revered one; it is also very, very beautiful.  It is believed that the 
emperor's Constantine's mother, Helene, who was a devoted Christian, visited 
Jerusalem and had the marble stairway from the old Roman procurator's palace, 
brought to Rome.  The stairway was very special because Jesus had walked up and 
down it. Adjacent to the Saint John's Cathedral is a structure that contains 
the stairway, and which is known as "the Holy steps". Pilgrims from all over the 
world visit the Cathedral and many of them then go up the stairway on their 
knees.  While doing so  looks easy,  and many, particularly from Germany, do it 
as though they were using their feet, it is, in fact, terribly very hard to 
do, as I found out the one and only time I did it.  Atop of the stairway there 
is the "Sancto Sanctorum"  chamber  which replicates the inner sanctum wherein 
the Ark was kept in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The original steps have 
been covered  with a layer of wood for the past many centuries, but here and 
there, as you are going up on your knees, there are little spaces through which 
you can see the original ones. (Since no one can go up that stairway on their 
feet, there is, thankfully, a regular stairway alongside)
Among the artistic treasures contained in the Saint John Cathedral there is a 
frieze of a long-ago Pope shoveling snow. Apparently such occurrences were so 
rare that they were deemed to be depicted in marble.  (I was in Rome a year 
ago last January when a light snow fell, and no one seemed to be other than 
bemused).
As we all know, the three traditional pilgrimage places have been Rome, 
Jerusalem and Santiago.  Rome pilgrims were called "romeros", a rubric that 
perdures in Spain;  Jerusalem pilgrims were called "palmeros" (palm-bearers), because 
of Palm Sunday, and pilgrims to Santiago were called "concheros", or shell 
holders. 
The death of the Pope has made me understand pilgrimages much more clearly:   
I now  have a very strong emotional need to go to Rome and to  kneel before 
the tomb of John Paul II, whom I loved dearly.  Other friends have expressed 
similar sentiments.  While I have already made arrangements to go over Memorial 
Day weekend,  I sense that something in me will feel unsettled until such a 
pilgrimage.

Perhaps you'd like to know that the "berenguela" (the ancient Santiago 
Cathedral bell)   tolled throughout the two and a half hours of the Pope's funeral 
mass in Rome.

In a related note,  those of you from Australia, or New Zealand, will please 
get in touch with me?  I think I have something that would interest you.

And, lastly, will the recipients of the coins/books that I brought from 
Seville let me know whether  you have gotten them?

Warm regards,

Rosina
  



.