By Anthony Barich
Former Melbourne Archdiocesan vocations director Fr Anthony Denton has been named inaugural Rector of Domus Australia charged with the mission of turning Australian tourists in Rome into pilgrims.
Domus Australia (Australia House) is situated in a late 19th century building bought in December 2008 by the Catholic Church in Australia from the Marist Fathers, to be made into a retreat centre.
It is located at Via Cernaia, about 10 minutes’ walk from Rome’s Central train station and within walking distance of the Vatican.
Up to 90 pilgrims can be accommodated in the Casa di Ferie hotel section, with daily Mass celebrated in English in the chapel.
Domus Australia will provide pilgrims with up to date information on papal events and general information about the Church as well as including tours of catacombs from the early Christian Church, the Coliseum and other Christian attractions.
In the Domus, there is a specially designed loungeroom with an open fireplace where people can chat after seeing the sites of Rome. It will also have conference rooms and a rooftop terrace and barbeque area.
The former Marist Fathers’ student house includes a basilica-like chapel named after Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, and excavations have revealed the remains of a 1st century house and pavement.
Fr Denton will begin his post when renovations that started in September 2009 are due to finish before June next year. Speaking with The Record in Rome during the week of Mary MacKillop’s canonisation, Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell, the driving force behind the project, said a central aim of Domus is to enrich Australians’ faith by connecting the heart of the Church with their Church back home – links that “have traditionally been very strong”.
“I hope it will be an information centre and an Australian cultural centre, and encourage people to move from tourists to pilgrims; to understand the faith that’s inspired the story of Catholic Rome; to understand the links that exist between Rome, the home of the Popes, and the very distant Church of Australia,” he said.
Cardinal Pell said Domus will help foster in Australian tourists an “emotional, personal feeling that they belong, that they’re part of the same worldwide show”.
“Presently we have one billion, 200 million Catholics – that’s quite something,” the Cardinal said.
Fr Denton, 38, who is undergoing additional studies in Rome, said the very fact that he has been appointed as a Rector who celebrates Mass at the chapel and oversees the centre underlines the fact that “it’s not a normal hotel, it’s a religious centre”.
“It’s a very exciting prospect for the Church in Australia; and it’s a different project from the point of view of things in Rome – to have a national hotel. The Americans have the Bishops’ Centre for Pilgrims, but while that gives out papal tickets it has no accommodation,” Fr Denton said.
“It will be a challenging job but it’s very exciting for Rome; there’s great interest in Rome about it, plus it puts us on the map in a way that we’ve never been before.”
Paul Dural, who painted the Our Lady of the Southern Cross image that adorns St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney and was so popular during World Youth Day 2008, has also been commissioned to create 35 paintings for the chapel.