Pope visits Venice

Pope Benedict recently spent a day in Venice during a two-day trip to northern Italy. While there he spoke to large crowds -- crowds that far exceeded the population of Venice itself -- encouraging the faithful to be witnesses to the Christian faith. In the course of his homily he made the good point that all too often we Christians act less like Jesus and more like the dispirited disciples on the road to Emmaus [Luke 24:13-35].

Recall the words of those two disciples as they described their disappointment after Jesus' death:  "But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel..." We were hoping. But lacking faith their hope had died. The pope rightly compared this lack of faith and hope to our modern world and the thoughts of so many Christians of week faith:

“The problem of evil, sorrow, and suffering, the problem of injustice and tyranny, the fear of others, of strangers and of those who come to our lands from afar and seem to threaten who we are, leads Christians today to sadly say: 'We were hoping that the Lord would deliver us from evil, from sorrow, from suffering, from fear, and from injustice.”

He went on to urge us to live our faith, for by doing so we turn despair into hope, sadness into joy. A joyless Christian is a contradiction in terms, and if we are living joyless lives we must pray for a conversion to joy.

I've included a brief video describing Pope Benedict's visit:

Our hotel (right) in Venice

Pope Benedict is obviously more disciplined than I, for although I once visited Venice for just one day (back in 2000), I could never again spend so little time in such a wonderful place. Indeed, five years later, in November 2005, Diane and I spent almost a week in Venice, one of the world's most unusual and beautiful cities. At the time I tracked down a "good deal" that led us to a lovely and relatively small boutique hotel, the Liassidi Palace, in the Castello district.

Since then this little hotel has become far more popular and its rates now far exceed our budget. But six years ago it was affordable. It is also in a perfect, central location that provided the perfect headquarters for our exploration of the city. 

And Venice is a great city of exploration. Everything slows down in Venice. There are no cars, no trucks, no roads. Instead the city moves by gondolas and motor boats via a remarkable system of canals that replaces the roadways and subways we find in most modern cities. In so many ways Venice, of course, is no modern city and that seems to be its greatest attraction.

Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge

When in Venice one realizes quickly that the means of transportation are really the modern world's most evident signs of "progress." And so on the surface Venice appears to be anything but modern. Like most other cities and towns, Venice has telephones, television, wifi, and most other modern conveniences, but these communications infrastructure elements are far less obvious than the ubiquitous canals. When in Venice, then, the visitor must adjust expectations and accept that getting around will take more time than usual. Fortunately the city is not large and is well suited to walking. And this is how Diane and I spent our six-day visit.  We walked everywhere, absorbing and visually inhaling this old city and its unique attractions. For six days life slowed down and we actually took the time to observe this small slice of the world, up close and personal.

My only regrets? We stayed just six days and we visited in November. God willing we will travel again to Venice. I hope only we can find a way to afford a ten-day visit and do so during the warmer months. 

My advice? If you go to Italy, be sure to include a stay in Venice.

God's peace...