Watto was sitting in the beautiful sacristy with me waiting when we heard someone walking through the door. We looked back and a preist walked in. He introduced himself as Ferrucio Romanin, and watto let out a rather blasphemous 'wow' (or something to that effect....). It turned out that this priest had been at Riverview for 21 years, had been ordained in Australia, and not only was the family priest of wattos uncle and cousin, but best friends with his grandparents and taught wattos dad at Riverview! It was incredible. We talked about view and its history and what was happening these days, it was nice to hear an aussie accent and trade stories about the school. Somehow we all still consider ourselves so much Riverview boys. I think that just shows what a special place it is. It has affected us so much that we still look on it as our second home, even thoug we dont go there and never will attend the school again. How many schools can claim that sort of respect from their past students?
However, whilst we were talking to Father Romanin, i mentioned what the day was and what had happened last year. He somehow knew about it already. It was uncanny, he seemed to read all our thoughts. As soon as we mentioned it, without even mentioning a mass, he had called out to Dennis Rodman, who we found out not only worked at the church, but was the guy responsible for preparing all the masses and keeping the church and sacristy in order. He had called out to him and said something in Italian. He then asked us what we wanted to do, and we all said we didnt really know, then he said, well i have a mass ready in the smaller chapel, if you want to give me a second to put on my robes, then we can do that. It was incredible, that is exactly what we wanted to do, he had already arranged everything. One other thing i must mention is whilst we were talking to him, a few people wandered into the sacristy and poked their head around. The first couple said, 'oh, pardon' and Father broke out in French with them. Then a big group came in, and Dutch was the language of choice. Then finally some italians and then Germans. We had counted that he spoke 5 languages as good as the last. This guy was incredible.
Anyway, we celebrated a great little mass. It was so special with just us, and talking, in the mass, about their lives and our lives, and the easter season. I dont think ive ever attended a more meaningful and special service. It was exactly the way we wanted to remember the boys.
After that, he asked us what we were doing. Before we could say 'well, actually we were sort of off to the pub', he had whisked us upstairs and brought us out at a tiny door. 'Does anyone get vertigo?' he asked, and then opened the door. We were standing on the 2 foot ledge at the base of the roof, about 25 or 30 m up. It was incredible, a view tourists would never get, looking over the marvellous structure. But he kept taking us up, telling us so many stories and historic points, we saw every inside crevis and cranny of the church, it was awesome. It was like being in the best religion class back home. Everything we had learnt was coming to life, this is where it all happened. But the best thing we did there, and easily the best thing we did in Rome, was him bringing us out on the roof. We had a complete 360� view of Rome. It was awesome. We spent almost 2 hours up there, talking and hearing so much about Rome and its history. It was so special. We had the best day yet, by far. It is times like these my faith is really renewed and i know that things like this dont just happen by coincidence. It was the perfect day. We were truely sent an angel to look after us.
Paz