Catholic bishops throughout the world make “ad limina” visits to Rome every five to ten years. These periodic trips bring them to the threshold or entryway, as the Latin word implies. “Ad limina” refers more specifically to the tomb, meaning the crypt of Saint Peter at the base of the Vatican’s high altar and that of Saint Paul, outside Rome’s ancient city wall. These tombs, as well as those of countless saints buried in or around the Eternal City, are a touchstone and entryway of faith for pilgrims and any who seek a path of deeper union to God through Christ.
I have been blessed in my thirty-eight years of priesthood to go to Rome five times as the guest of wonderful friends, accompanying them on pilgrimage. This is a jubilee or holy year when many go there for special commemorative graces. In the Catholic Church the jubilee occurs every twenty-five years and follows Jewish tradition which grants reconciliation and renewal during the special times; they can also occur at other designated periods determined by popes, as Francis did in 2015 (Year of Mercy) and John Paul II did in 1983 (Year of Redemption). I was privileged to go there last week and fortunate to visit the sepulcher of Saint Peter in the scavi necropolis, or excavation region of the dead, underneath his basilica.
Catacombs of early Christian saints are spread throughout the European City of Fountains. And thousands of churches contain bodies, bones, or relics of glorified ancestors in faith. With my small group of travelers we prayed at tombs of many Greats like Saints Monica, Catherine of Siena, Ignatius of Loyola, Aloysius Gonzaga, twentieth century pontiffs buried near the tomb of the first pope below Saint Peter’s Cathedral, the simple grave of Pope Francis who was recently buried at the Church of Saint Mary Major in our Blessed Mother’s embrace, and even a crypt that contains the arm of Saint Francis Xavier. It is incredible to be present to the sanctity of so many spiritual forbears who walked the way before us and left a tremendous legacy. And it’s a wonderful preparation for the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls.
I think that at the heart of the wisdom of the ad limina obligation is that all bishops are connected to our ancestral shepherds; and all of us would do well to stay connected to the roots of our religion, too. But it doesn’t have to be on such a grand scale that it takes us 5,000 miles from home. Throughout Rome there are lots of local saints who were humble examples of holiness to specific parishes, neighborhoods, or communities. Though they are not listed in the ecclesial canon of saints, they are, nevertheless, an inspiration to those who now traipse in their footsteps. In each of our parishes today, as in each of our families, we also have models of holiness whom we revere and remember with great affection. Each diocese, likewise, has designated places that offer jubilee blessings, such as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Kansas City or the Co-Cathedral in Saint Joseph. Their main entrances are considered extensions of the holy doors of the Vatican symbolizing a spiritual passage from sin to grace and a journey of conversion and renewal that accompanies us on our earthly path to heaven’s door.
I thank the wonderful couples who invited me to join them on their spiritual journey to ecclesial thresholds in or near Vatican City through my years (Thompson, Henning, Mohajir, Lierz, McGee, Wiedeman) and thank all the incredible individuals and families that I have been privileged to accompany, now and then, through the doorways of faith along the journey of living in Christ and following in the footsteps of saints.