The unofficial Jubilee Year guide to Rome

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 20, 2000 by John L. Jr. Allen

Castel Gondolfo: Popes chose wisely in making this small town in the hills outside Rome their summer residence. Set on the bank of Lake Albano, the town is far cooler than Rome during the scorching summer months. But more than that, the town is smaller and the papal "castle" far less imposing and magnificent than St. Peter's and the Apostolic Palace. Here, one feels, could reside a servant pope, a person interested in impressing the world with humility and love rather than the trappings of empire. Seeing the pope at Castel Gondolfo is an entirely different experience from a papal audience in Rome. It is more intimate, more real. But even when the pope is not in residence, it's worth coming to see what physical form an alternative theology of the papacy might take.

John Allen's e-mail address is jallen@natcath.org