Romeward Bound!

Some readers may remember that I was in Rome once before last year, on a press junket for Angels & Demons. They gave us the official Angels & Demons tour of Rome, walking in the footsteps of Robert Langdon from church to church as he unraveled the path of the Illuminati.

The idea of tourists going to the Eternal City to see St. Peter’s and other locales specifically through the lens of a badly written, anti-Catholic conspiracy novel is pretty depressing (although not as pathetic as Twilight fans heading to Forks, Washington for Twilighter tours).

Fortunately, I was able to stay a few days afterward, touring on my own, and making a sort of pilgrimage out of it. I wrote a bit about my experiences in an article on religion and science in Angels & Demons,  and I posted photos from my trip at Jimmy Akin’s blog. Plus, I got to knock the film at the end of my European trip!

This time, it will be a real pilgrimage. Our bishop, John Myers of Newark, is leading the trip, the highlight of which may well be the June 29 Pallium Mass celebrated by His Holiness Pope Benedict; we’re also scheduled to be at his weekly address. We’re also going to Tuscany and Assisi, among other destinations.

I hope to do some blogging on the road from Rome, not about movies of course, but about the trip. Watch this space!