This past fall break, a group of students and faculty traveled to Rome as part of a theology course in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: the Church and Transformation. Offered for the first time this year and taught by professors Dr. Kathryn Getek Soltis and Dr. Jaisy Joseph, the class had the opportunity to embark on this unique pilgrimage.
The Church and Transformation talks about the historical changes within the Roman Catholic Church with a main focus on Synodality.
“This class is running at an opportune time when the Synod is currently in session in Rome,” senior Mary Swartzberg said.
For the past three years, the Catholic Church has been engaged in a process known as the Synod on Synodality. This process helps the members of the Catholic Church engage in dialogue and listening to examine how the Holy Spirit leads the Church.
“Together, we prayed for the Catholic Church and discussed our hopes for how the Synod could transform it,” junior Ailish Wilson said.
The group of Villanova students traveled to Rome as part of CENTERS, a group of Catholic colleges that is dedicated to studying the Catholic Church’s ongoing Synod on Synodality.
“We were able to experience, in a very real way, the content and impact of the conversations occurring in our Church,” Swartzberg said.
The students met with Synod delegates and moderators and discussed how to converse with them and engage in conversation regarding Synod. Additionally, the students had the chance to visit the Synod Hall in the Vatican and meet several Synod leaders.
“I felt so lucky to be part of that experience and so grateful that the Synod leaders included us young people,” Wilson said.
Additionally, the students got to participate in communal prayers, teach-ins, explore the cuisine, guided tours and be in attendance with Pope Francis himself.
“On Wednesday morning, we got up before sunrise to wait in line and then we attended [Pope Francis’s] general audience,” Wilson said. “When he drove around the audience, we were all squished against the barricade waving to him.”
“Whether providing food to individuals experiencing homelessness or joining in prayer with the Roman community, it seemed to me that our whole group was deeply changed by this experience,” Swartzberg said.
The students also shared how this trip was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the Catholic Church and Synodality in general.
“I personally was inspired to bring the synodal spirit back to campus-to be radically inclusive and to always listen to the stories of my brothers and sisters,” Swartzberg said.
Overall, the trip helped the students connect more with the Catholic Church and the concept of Synodality and brought them closer together as a class as they embarked into the city of Rome.
“I really enjoyed having this literal once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in something with this much importance,” sophomore Amos Colocho said.
