The path of a Georgia missionary will no longer be trod. Msgr. James King, veteran priest in many parts of the state died October 19. He was buried at his former parish.

He came from the north, eager to work for the extension of the Kingdom of Christ in the South. He covered miles of trails, carrying his Mass-kit, bringing the faith to hundreds. He built many churches.

Finally he assumed the pastorate of St. Anthony. He still worked hard. He was honored as a monsignor. He was everybody’s friend, and when he died they came to pay him tribute.

God will surely bless him, because he served the Lord and his church.

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*From A Window On Monte Mario (III)

This “Layer Cake” theory of local history is practical. Rome has its contemporary scene, the city of Mussolini, the Risorgimento and farther back, the Reformation and the Renaissance. If there are still any readers still looking out the window with me, be patient. As somebody has said, “Rome wasn’t built in an IBM plant.”

Two large layers remain: Imperial Rome and Early Christian Rome. They have left their residue all over the city. Often the remains intermingle. The Pantheon became St. Mary of the Martyrs. An ancient altar, built by Augustus and dedicated to the “Son of God” according to legend, stood where the towering St. Mary Aracoeli now rises.

The Colosseum, most renowned and characteristic monument of the Empire stands tall from almost any point in Rome. When Bryon wrote about “this long explored but still exhaustless mine of contemplation,” he must have been standing inside on some jagged stone or straddling the troughs in the floor that once drained the blood. It is immense -- but it is neither an empty void nor a majestic vastness. It is still full of gladiators and raised thumbs, wild beasts, Christians, curses and prayers. I learned two features this time I did not know. Like an aquacade, the lower section was often filled with water so that naval battles could be staged; and like the new Houston Dome, it could be covered on hot or rainy days by a huge veil held in place by sailors from the fleet of Ravenna.

One can meditate too, like Byron, on another scene. When blood and bread and circuses had softened the Roman spirit, the great Capitol fell apart. A monk by the name of Telemachus slipped into the Coliseum, and threw himself between the dull brutal men. He begged the crowd to stop the killing. The reaction was roughly that of a mob that has paid to see a heavyweight fight. Telemachus was stoned to death.

* “Funny Thing Happened....”

--to Julius Caesar on his way to the Forum March 15th, 44 BC.” The towering general, statesman and orator was assassinated. As every child knows, the deed was done by Brutus, and Mark Antony was given the great eulogy to speak: - “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.” It is suspected that more tears have been shed over the memorization of Shakespeare than over the fate of Caesar.

Republican and Imperial Rome is clustered around the several Forums and the Coliseum. There is a good spot, the Tabularium, from which the scope of pageantry can be recaptured; the arches of triumph with tradesmen and idlers strolling around them exchanging gossip; the temples where the priests served. In this slight valley the early Romans and the Sabines, after years of slaughter, agreed to come to a common ground for a market and meeting place.

Many years and many monuments later, the great Emperors Augustus, the infamous Nero, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and Constantine moved the course of Roman history forward. But other men had come, by the Via Appia, past the graceful, irregular olive trees and great aqueducts.

Peter and Paul among them, the new breed, Christians (the Romans had much trouble with the name) entered Rome never to leave it. They renewed and revitalized this “lone mother of dead empires,” as Byron called it. The Apostles, -- and the martyrs, and popes, and holy men and women -- brought the city many things -- a new religion, the Judaic reverence for God, the Eastern mind, -- but it was chiefly the Gospel of Christ that found its way into Rome with every new Christian.

The German poet, Goethe, writing of men’s love for the city of Rome, said: “Thou art a world, oh Rome, but without love Rome is not Rome, just as the world is not the world.”

This can be taken in a different sense. Rome with all her force and arms, wealth and culture, wars, intrigue, magnificence and decay had a deeper dimension of the Spirit. The love of Christ for his Father and all men, transformed all men to love in the same manner. This, in a Christian, is the heart of Rome.

Apostolic Rome is in the footprint of a paving stone in the Church of Quo Vadis where Peter, discouraged and departing, met his Lord. It is in the Mammertime cells under St. Peter in Prison where many believe both the great Apostles were confined before their martyrdom. Peter is the subject of three wonderful paintings by Raphael in the Vatican -- where his earlier escape from prison competes with moonlight, the guard’s torch and the angel’s brightness for the glory of the painter’s light.

St. Paul - outside-the-walls can barely be seen on the horizon. It was built by Constantine over Paul’s tomb; Theodosius enlarged it; Honorius completed it. It was destroyed by fire in 1823, but beautifully rebuilt. The relics are there under the papal altar. Rome has not forgotten the Jew who proudly asserted: “But I am a Roman citizen.”

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta