An Ignatian key to Pope's Lenten retreat
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is making the traditional Lenten retreat with the members
of the Roman Curia this week. In a departure from the practice of his predecessors,
the Holy Father has asked participants to gather at a retreat house run by the Pauline
Fathers in the small town of Ariccia, just south of Rome. A Jesuit priest who was
the coordinator of English-language outreach and catechetical efforts for the Society
at World Youth Day 2013 in Brazil and is pursuing advanced studies in Fundamental
Theology at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, Fr. Michael Rogers, SJ, told Vatican
Radio the decision to make the retreat outside the Vatican is rooted in the spirituality
of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. “One of the things that
is important in Ignatian spirituality, when one makes his annual retreat,” Fr. Rogers
SJ said, “is that one goes away.” He went on to exaplain, “The point is to go away,
and to let everything quiet down.” Listen: 
“I think what the Pope is asking for, here, in having [the retreatants] go out to Ariccia, is an openness to the way that the Spirit is guiding them,” Fr. Rogers SJ added.
The Pauline Fathers' facility in Ariccia has 120 rooms, a large dining hall, several chapels, gardens and meeting rooms. The Holy Father is staying at the facility from the 9th to the 14th of March, and has invited a parish priest of the Rome diocese and well regarded spiritual director for clergy, Msgr. Angelo De Donatis, to preach and lead reflections on the purification of the heart.
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