by Michael O’Neill

I was the first seminarian at the Scots College Rome’s ‘new college’ on the Via Cassia to be ordained a priest, on Ember Saturday in Lent, March 13, 1965, at the Lateran Basilica.

The ordaining prelate was Cardinal Luigi Traglia, from 1936 Vicegerent of the Rome diocese, and from March 30, 1965, Vicar General, best known as the bishop who was said to have ordained more priests than any other bishop in history. The Rome diocese, not the Vatican, was in charge of ‘holy orders’ and ordinations. One of my student assignments for a year at the college was liaison with the Rome diocesan office. I remember little of the details, except that it had to have been in junior or senior year, when by then my Italian was almost fluent, and that I got on well with the people at the office.

On Saturday, May 27, 2023, almost 60 years after ordination, I watched the recorded livestream of the previous Saturday’s official Farewell Mass at the Via Cassia. It was a strange experience. The principal celebrant was a bishop with an English accent whom I didn’t know. The homilist had an even more pronounced English accent, and I’m guessing was Cardinal Arthur Roche, head of the Vatican ‘dicastery’ for liturgy. Not that I’m down on English accents, or un-ecumenical! The bishop himself was a fine celebrant, but there were a few strange rubrical touches, including incensing at the ‘consecration’.

The Gospel was the story in Luke of the twelve-year-old Jesus staying behind in Jerusalem, and his parents finding him in the Temple. What that had to do with a ‘farewell Mass’ prompted the thought of the west-of-Scotland colloquialism on the subject of ‘Clyde navigation’!

During the streaming of the Mass I couldn’t help but think of my own seven years at the college in its three domiciles, and all those who shared that experience. However, the only part of the liturgy that resonated with me was the closing hymn, which we always sang on the Feast of St. Andrew, ‘When Christ Our Lord to Andrew cried, Come Thou and Follow Me’ – especially the music. This is the same experience I have with a good number of the hymns from our pre-Vatican II past, where the words may be dated but the music resonates. The St. Andrew hymn that day prompted a combination of the good memories of the past, and the sense that this may be the end of the Scots College Rome.

Michael L. O’Neill is a retired assistant public defender who now lives in Florida.