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Christendom in Rome
“Making eye contact with the Holy Father stills all the frustrated rumblings of one’s heart, and time itself seems to stand still. It was incredible, really. I still can’t exactly believe it,” says alumna Nicole Hill while reflecting on her semester that she spent in Rome during the Fall of 2006.
Although a number of colleges and universities offer their students an opportunity to study in Rome, Christendom’s program is unique in several important ways. First, an intimate group of 40 Juniors takes part in the program each semester, thus allowing deeper friendships to occur and more individualized attention to be given by the teachers and Rome Program Directors. Also, all students involved in Christendom’s Rome Program are Christendom College students. They do not join up with another school’s program and Christendom does not allow other schools to utilize its program.
The students attend classes in the Istituto Maria SS Bambina, pictured above right. The only thing separating this building and the colonnade surrounding St. Peter’s Basilica is a narrow road. Secondly, no other college can boast such a convenient location in Rome. The students currently live in the Residence Candia, located just outside the northern walls of Vatican City. Students make a ten minute walk, cutting across St. Peter’s Square, to get to their classes each day at the Istituto Maria SS Bambina, a convent replete with classrooms, chapel, and a balcony literally overlooking St. Peter’s Square. In fact, from their balcony, students can easily see and hear the Pope during his weekly Wednesday audiences.
The last major difference is that Christendom charges a nominal “Rome Program” fee of approximately $1000, not the normal added expenses of $2000 – $4000 charged by other colleges. This policy aims to make the program attainable for all students.
The classes offered in Rome include Apologetics or Moral Theology (depending on fall or spring semester), Art and Architecture, Italian, and Roman Perspectives, a course that spans from Livy to the Church Fathers.
“Seeing the Pope never got old,” graduate Flannery O’Connor recounts. “ I remember one audience in particular, when Christendom was announced and we all jumped up and held the Christendom banner proudly and shouted ‘Amamus te!’ to Pope Benedict. We received a warm look as he raised his hand in recognition of the College. The Holy Father then drove by us as we all stretched with all of our might to touch his hand.” Because of their prime location so proximate to the Vatican, the students are able to easily attend the Sunday Angelus with the Holy Father, attend daily Mass at St. Peter’s, and walk to the many churches and sites of Rome. For meals, students have kitchens in their apartments and receive a weekly stipend to buy necessary groceries for breakfast and dinner. Lunches are shared in common at a cafeteria near where they take classes.
The apartments have kitchens so that students can cook for themselves most nights for dinner.
“Christendom is known by many of the hierarchy in Rome,” says O’Donnell. “A number of the cardinals who head the various pontifical councils and congregations are good friends of the College, for example, Francis Cardinal Arinze, Archbishop Burke, and J. Francis Cardinal Stafford. Additionally, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI was the Chairman of our 25th Anniversary Honorary Dinner Committee in 2002. We definitely have a special bond with Rome!”
“To live in Rome, at the heart of the Church, for nearly three months teaches one what it means to be truly Roman Catholic. It has taught us that being Roman Catholic is to be rooted in the very Mystery of the Incarnation,” says alumnus Matt Anderson. “Because God became man, earthly things take on a more supernatural meaning. Rome has taught us that Catholicism must infiltrate every aspect of our lives, not just our prayer lives, but also the very material and ordinary aspects of our lives as well. “From the architecture of churches to the statues of the saints—found on nearly every corner—Rome testifies that God must be the ultimate end for every single one of our actions, and if He is not, then the action is meaningless. Catholicism is not something to be kept in the Churches; no, it is something that should pervade our culture as if it were in the very air we breathe.” TBA Living
Accommodations The Residence Candia is within the sound of the bells of the Vatican but a world away from the tour buses. Five minutes stroll from the Vatican Museum (and the Sistine Chapel). It is in a quintessentially Roman neighborhood complete with cinemas, shops of all sorts, restaurants, coffee bars and an open-air market.
For the same price of a bed and breakfast Residence Candia provides regular services like an hotel, such as daily cleaning and weekly change of bed and bath linen. Laundry service photocoping and fax are available upon request at the reception desk. Apartments are available with one, two, three or four rooms. Units accommodate up to eight beds. Penthouse suites each with two rooms, have a superb view of Michelangelo's Masterpiece Dome on St. Peter's. Each apartment has
its own bathroom: it will be equipped with kitchen facilities, fridge,
TV COLOR set and air conditioned. Fall Semester Spring Semester Financial
Information Airfare If the student decides
not to go to Rome, or for disciplinary or academic reasons becomes ineligible
after those dates, all fees must still be paid. |
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Since the program’s inception, hundreds of students have attended the Rome Program and have fond memories of their time spent in the Eternal City. 
There is convenient
access to city buses and underground trains. The Resort consists of apartments
that have been recently renovated, provide all comforts and permit a very
short or a very long stay to be most enjoyable.
