To be a pilgrim, he explains, is to look for spiritual enrichment, to grow in faith, hope and charity. Also, according to Msgr. Roensch, what makes a pilgrimage is the willingness to sacrifice for fellow pilgrims and to suffer inconvenience. There certainly will be inconvenience. Rome is overwhelming and always in a state of construction, restoration and excavation.
Work sites can make walking the city difficult and add to the traffic problem.
Undeterred, though, I began my pilgrimage several months ago, armed with pilgrim guidebooks and maps. Multilayered History I quickly realized that one could spend a lifetime in Rome and not absorb its history and culture. There are so many layers of civilization pagan, republic, imperial and early, medieval and modern Christian that it is impossible to grasp them all. The same is true about the hundreds of Christian spiritual sites. There are catacombs, chapels, shrines, tombs and basilicas.