By Susan Gallagher

An audience with Pope Benedict XVI, a private tour of the Sistine Chapel, viewing the Holy Shroud at Turin. Those are just a few of the memories a Carroll College alumni group brought back from Italy.

Fifty-seven alumni and friends made the pilgrimage organized as part of Carroll’s centennial celebration and escorted by Father Dan Shea, a Carroll professor who went as chaplain. The itinerary for the May 17-28 journey took the travelers to Florence, Turin, Milan, Venice, Ravenna and Assisi, as well as to Rome. About half of the group also went to Germany. A Carroll student group was in Italy at the same time as the alumni. Kathy Hubley, Carroll ’71, traveled with husband Bernie, Carroll ’70, and said it was “a trip that was supposed to be.”

The Helena couple had bought airline tickets to visit their Navy pilot son in Japan, but then learned he wouldn’t be there when they were to arrive. Kathy read about plans for the Italy travel and the Hubleys signed up, flying on credit received for the unused Japan tickets. For both it was the first time overseas, a journey Bernie described as “unparalleled.”

The Hubleys and others in the Carroll group were among thousands at the Vatican to hear the pope’s message, which was delivered in six languages.

“If you’re a Carroll alum, it was a very touching experience when we looked across the square (at the Vatican) and saw Carroll students waving a Carroll flag,” Bernie said.

Father Shea, the pastor at Helena’s Our Lady of the Valley Parish, gave lectures related to the itinerary. The Rome visit was the sixth for Father Shea, who teaches classical languages at Carroll.

“This was both a pilgrimage and a tour,” he said. “From a pilgrimage point of view, it is a wonderful thing to get in touch with our roots.”

He was in the contingent that went to Germany and saw the Oberammergau Passion Play. It was extraordinarily moving and, for him, the highlight of the entire trip, he said.

In Rome, Carroll students joined the alumni for the Sistine tour. Carroll Alumni Relations Director Kathy Ramirez said the students and adults prayed together, giving thanks for Carroll’s first 100 years and “asking the Lord’s blessing on Carroll for our next 100 years.”

In addition to the papal audience and the Sistine tour, the days in Rome included visits to the Coliseum, the T r e v i Fountain, the Catacombs, the Roman Forum, St. P e t e r ’ s Basilica and St. Mary M a j o r Basilica. The travelers also went to the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the ecclesiastical seat of the pope.

In Florence they saw the Michelangelo masterpiece “David” and in Milan they visited the Duomo, where St. Charles Borromeo is buried. Also on the itinerary in Italy were stops at St. Mark’s Cathedral and Doge’s Palace in Venice; the viewing of mosaics in Ravenna; and the basilicas of St. Francis and St. Clare in Assisi. In addition to seeing the Oberammergau Passion Play, the group in Germany saw the 18th century Pilgrimage Church of Wies and the 19th century Neuschwanstein Castle.

The Hubleys and Father Shea said the entire trip was a model of good planning and organization, which they attributed to Kathy Ramirez and her assistants.

The next Carroll alumni and friends trip will be a wine tour in California’s Napa- Sonoma region and is scheduled for Nov. 3-6. More information is available from Ramirez at 406-447-5185, or by e-mail to alumni@carroll.edu.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 6, June 18, 2010.