A year ago more or less, it was Saturday 7th May 2011, Pope Benedict XVI left the
Vatican, for a week-end visit to Aquileia and Venice.
Veronica Scarisbrick
shines the spotlight on the lesser know of these cities, Aquileia. An ancient city
located in north eastern Italy.
Not just because it’s a year since the Pope
visited, but because on the 13th May, right until the 15th
the Second Ecclesial Assembly of Aquileia is taking place there and in the nearby
city of Grado.
When the Holy Father was in Aquileia last year he attended
the Preparatory Assembly for this event in the Basilica there. The first Assembly
was held there in 1990.
On this occasion he highlighted the pivotal role of
the ancient Church of Aquileia in the evangelisation of Central Europe : " It
is appropriate that you wanted your Ecclesial Convention to take place in the Mother
Church of Aquileia, from which the Churches of the North East of Italy have germinated,
but also the Churches of Slovenia and Austria and some Croatian and Bavarian and even
Hungarian churches. .." Naturally the Pope spoke too of the future of the region,
of the mission of the North East where Christians have to face new challenges:
“ … Coming back to Aquileia means above all learning from the glorious Church which
generated you, how to commit yourselves today, in a world which is radically changed,
to a renewed evangelisation of your area, and how to hand down to future generations
the precious heritage of our Christian faith.” While there Benedict XVI also spoke
of this meeting as : “ a significant return to the “roots” in order to rediscover
the living “stones” of the spiritual building that has its foundation in Christ and
its extension in the most eloquent witnesses of the Aquileian Church: Sts Hermagoras
and Fortunatus, Hilary and Tatian, Chrysogonus, Valerian and Chromatius. Veronica
places Aquileia on the map before stepping back in time with an archaeologist
who has a particular expertise in the stones of Aquileia ; specifically the body
of inscriptions which witness to Aquileia's Christian heritage. She's Katherine
McDonnell who teaches Roman Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles
in the United States. Listen :