Why Rome?

Until two weeks ago we weren't going to Rome at all, but Santiago de Compostella. We've known a number of people who have done the pilgrimage to Compostella and, for a long time, we have found the concept intriguing. “One day”, we said. Three weeks ago, we decided to finally act. We would start as medieval pilgrims did, by simply walking out our front door.

Since our front door is in London, this means walking to a port in England and joining a route across the Channel in France. I bought a map of Santiago pilgrim routes in France and I studied possible routes. As I did so, the idea of Rome as an alternative destination for our pilgrimage started to grow.

Years ago, in my twenties, I read Hilaire Belloc's “The Path to Rome”, the story of his own walking pilgrimage in the early twentieth century. Belloc was a Catholic and his pilgrimage religious. I was then a recent Catholic convert. Belloc's story fired my imagination but I had put it to the very back of my mind. Now, looking at the map of France, it came again to the fore.

Rome: its impact on the history of Europe and on the Christian faith is incalculable. It had been the centre of the ancient and medieval worlds and remains the centre of the Catholic world today. Our own city of London (Londinium) was a Roman creation . The pilgrim roads of the middle ages were Roman roads. Ironically, today it is difficult to follow the authentic pilgrim routes across Europe because the ancient Roman roads have become the modern highways. All roads led to Rome (omnes viae Romam perducunt).

Today Santiago is the biggest centre of pilgrimage in modern Europe and it grows more popular each year. But in the Age of Faith it was second to Rome. Santiago has one saint and his story is legendary. Rome has many, starting with Peter and Paul and their stories are history. The first Christian churches were built in Rome after Constantine granted toleration to the new religion in the fourth century. The city is filled with historic churches, some converted from even older Roman buildings. It has a wealth of pilgrim sites.

And Rome has Pope Benedict of whom we are great fans. We will be be able to see and hear him in person at the end of our pilgrimage.

So, Rome it is. We shall be “roamers” (medieval English for a pilgrim to Rome).