Caravita

Some of you know that, before I retired in November, I joined a group called Jesuit Volunteers EnCorps (JVE). It is a new program, started in Portland about five years ago, and designed for people 50 or older who are retired or semi-retired and interested in service, spirituality, and simple living. It is an outgrowth of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and is a kind of Catholic Peace Corps (but JVE is four years older than the Peace Corps), for individuals--mostly young people--who commit to a year of service to the poor and living in communal housing with other volunteers on a very limited stipend.

JVE has been a wonderful experience for me so far and, at a meeting in February, I mentioned to a fellow member, Elizabeth Hansen, that Brad and I planned to live in Rome in the fall. That prompted her to remember friends of hers that were currently living here. She put me in touch with them, Rose and Wayne Wentz, and they were kind enough to have dinner with us last Saturday, April 2, in the restaurant in their apartment building in Piazza di Santa Maria delle Grazie near Trastevere. They shared their experience of finding a place to live in Rome and navigating the legal system. We were amazed to learn that Conor, our first son, and Andrew, their second, where classmates at Garfield High School in Seattle, graduating the same year 2007. 

They also told us about their faith community here in Rome, called Caravita, which meets for Mass every Sunday at a 17th century church near the Pantheon called Oratory of St. Francis Xavier del Caravita. We went to Mass there on Sunday, April 3 and again on Sunday, April 10. The church is beautiful, the congregation friendly, and the homilists inspiring. Not ony that, instead of coffee and donuts, they serve Prosecco and chocolates after Mass!