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| Garden at Casa Santa Maria |
It was a day to visit Casa Santa Maria. It is the residence for American priests who are in graduate studies in Rome and are a community of the North American College. The Rector of Casa Santa Maria is Monsignor Frank Kelly of the Worcester Diocese. He is a friend of Fr. Leroy Owens of Medfield, MA. I gave him Leroy's regards and as we talked we discovered that we are both alumni of Holy Cross. He is the Class of 1951. I am Class of 1971. Monsignor Kelly was a wonderful host to a group of the priests from the sabbatical program at Casa O'Toole. After lunch with Monsignor Kelly and the priests of Casa Santa Maria, I again visited the Palazzo Barberini with a couple of the guys from Casa O'Toole and spent a few hours exploring Rome. The morning, of course, was a different story. We had a conference all morning and were primed to take the walk to Casa Santa Maria. We learned from Monsignor Kelly that Casa Santa Maria is the original site of the North American College and celebrated its 150th anniversary this year. A final note about Monsignor Kelly. He was made a Canon of Saint Peter's Basilica last week. He is the first American to be named as a Canon of Saint Peter's. [Question of the day: what is a Canon and what does a Canon do at St. Peter's? Answer: Google! I can't do all the work for you.] At the end of the school year, he will be moving to take up residence in The Vatican. What a wonderful Worcester connection to The Vatican and honor to the College of the Holy Cross! The night ended with a few of us making plans to visit Naples this weekend. Stay tuned!
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| With Monsignor Frank Kelly |
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| With Monsignor Ray Dreiling (Fresno, CA) and Fr. Tom Devery (New York, NY) |
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| Fr. Rolo Castillo and Monsignor Ray Dreiling |
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| Courtyard of Casa Santa Maria |
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| Main altar of the chapel at Casa Santa Maria |
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| Side altar |
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| Side altar |
Monsignor Dreiling is a miserable human being who has single handedly destroyed the parish that my family have been going to for as long as I can remember & I am 65 years of age. He hired a tyrant to be the parish administrator & now the parish is run entirely by this man. Dreiling shows no love for his parishioners. When my mother took ill & was in the hospital, it took 3 days for a priest to come & give her the anointing of the sick. Even after I called & left a message in Dreiling's personal voicemail. The priest who finally showed up was from a neighboring parish. HOW COULD THIS "MAN OF GOD" TAKE A VACATION WHEN OUR PARISH IS IN SUCH TURMOIL. I pray in the very near future he leaves MY parish & finds a new on...& I also pray he doesn't destroy that parish. The people of God deserve better from a "Monsignor".
ReplyDeleteOne loyal TCCOV parishioner