In a short, but poignant video, Trinna Leong captures the Religio staff’s most memorable experiences from day 1 at the baggage claim in Rome’s Fiumicino airport to the farewell dinner on our last night.

The university’s affiliated hospital. | Photo by Teresa Mahoney.

ROME — Piazza Navona, with its fountains, cafes and street performers, is one of the central tourists sites of Rome. Most tourists streaming toward the square do not notice the boxy, nondescript building that sits at one corner of the site. A small plaque is all that reveals the building’s identity: Santa Croce, the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

The university is one of the seven pontifical universities in Rome – educational institutions dedicated to the study of Catholicism under the authority of the Holy See. Santa Croce, as the university is more widely known in Italy, was also founded by a controversial Catholic organization called Opus Dei. The university is just one of 50 educational institutions around the world that are affiliated with the group. Other renowned universities that spawn out of the group are the IESE Business School in Spain and Lexington College in Chicago. Forbes has ranked IESE as having one of the best Masters of Business Administration in the world.

Opus Dei is a Catholic lay organization within the church that was initiated by Josemaria Escriva, a Spanish priest in the early 20^th century. Escriva, who was made a saint in 2002,  espoused the teaching of, in his own words, “sanctifying God’s work in our daily lives,” a phrase that has been the spirit of Opus Dei and the crux of its beliefs as a group.

The group’s image took a terrible blow upon the publication of Dan Brown’s novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” in 2003. The book and the media coverage that followed offered a damning profile of the group, complete with a whip-lashing murderous albino monk. Opus Dei’s controversial practices of self-mortification – acts of flogging one’s back or wearing a barbed cilice for two hours a day – didn’t help improve its image. Other accusations included the amount of influence Opus Dei had among influential wealthy individuals and a knack for secrecy among its practitioners.

However, one investigation of Opus Dei, by the Catholic journalist John Allen Jr., found that many of the conspiracy theories about the group were unfounded. There are no albino monks. One of the things that Allen praised was the independence these educational institutions had.

“Opus Dei does not want to stifle creativity and initiative by suggesting that one needs to wait for orders from headquarters before proceeding,” wrote Allen in his book.

Marie Oates, the communications director of IESE Business School’s branch in New York, said that Opus Dei seeks to collaborate rather than dominate. “Most of these institutions are a result of collaborations with non-members,” she said of the organization’s many educational institutions.

“All of these initiatives were created to meet the needs of society,” said Oates. “Formation of schools has always been a part of the Christian spirit to serve others.”

Father John Wauck at a hallway in the North American College after Sunday’s morning mass. | Photo by Anam Siddiq.

The same seemed to be true in Rome. “My impression is that a lot of the people sent here aren’t Opus Dei,” said Corinne Mannella, a student in church communications at Santa Croce. She added that most of the faculty members were affiliated with Opus Dei and it was not something they often spoke about in class.  “I only found out about it when it came up during one-to-one conversations,” she added.

The university mostly gets its students from dioceses around the world.  Bishops choose seminarians to pursue religious studies in a seminary or a pontifical university. The dioceses often support the student by paying tuition and living expenses.

Santa Croce is not an Opus Dei training center, faculty members insisted. “The uniqueness of this university is that it lives out the spirit of Opus Dei,” said the Rev. John Wauck, an Opus Dei priest and professor at Santa Croce.

The same goes for another Opus Dei affiliated university 30-minutes drive away. Located amongst the lush green estates, the Universita Campus Bio-Medico is a small private medical university with just over 800 students. The university was initiated with the purpose of providing health solutions to the people, “drawing the Christian spirit of service” as its university mission states.

Students are aware that the university is founded by the religious group but insisted that they have not encountered any evangelization efforts on campus grounds.

“There are priests who are doctors and can provide religious and academic life advice to students,” said Roberta Cavignano, 23, a fourth-year medical student from Torino.

“But students are under no obligation to participate in the activities,” she added.

Roberta Cavignano with a schoolmate, Raffaele Rocco on campus. | Photo by Trinna Leong.

The medical school does not advertise itself as an Opus Dei affiliated institution. On its website, under the history section, there was a mention of former Opus Dei Archbishop Alvaro del Portillo calling for the formation of a medical institution. On campus grounds however, the only hint that Opus Dei members manage the university and the hospital adjacent to it was in the chapel. The religious sanctuary in the hospital has Opus Dei leaflets and cards lying discreetly on a table next to the door.

Cavignano’s family are members of the group and her brother is a numerary, a celibate member who lives in a residential hall owned by the group. But she said that she has no such calling.

“I like the idea of Opus Dei and its work but I have no vocation,” she said. Members of Opus Dei join the organization once they experience a calling, otherwise known as a vocation.

“Initially I felt the pressure to join when I was younger. But I decided it is not for me,” said Cavignano who considers herself a devout Catholic.

“A lot of people don’t understand and my friends question why I am in an Opus Dei university,” she said. “But I either just shrug them off or try to explain what Opus Dei is and what this university does.”

The student bodies of the three universities are vastly different from each other. Clearly with Santa Croce, most students are religious, conservative and are dressed in clerical garb. While in IESE, students are generally older, business oriented and attend classes in suits. Bio-Medico however, comes off as incredibly casual, relaxed and devoid of any religious references.

The hallways of these universities were not filled with posters or flyers of Opus Dei meetings. Students say  they are hardly exposed to members persuading people to participate in activities. However they knew that if they wanted information, it was readily available in the chapels or offices of administrators and counselors.

The chapel inside Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico. | Photo by Teresa Mahoney.

“I feel like I may have known more about Opus Dei before I went to school than now,” said another student of Santa Croce, Auredy Anweiler. Anweiler used to work in church-related events that collaborated with the group, providing her with the knowledge of the organization’s belief system.

In all three universities where various faculty members were interviewed, the general consensus was that the percentage of faculty and administration employees in these institutions who are also Opus Dei members are higher compared to the percentage of Opus Dei students enrolled.

The school also does not use any of the organization’s books or Saint Josemaria’s quotes on a daily basis.

“At most you get professors telling you about glorifying God’s work, quotes from Saint Josemaria,”said Mannella at Santa Croce.

Cavignano, along with her peers at Bio-Medico said that they have sometimes faced criticisms, jokes and mockery from friends for enrolling into an Opus Dei-affiliated university. But they say that they are there because the school offers something that other schools do not offer.

“I came here because we learned how to approach the doctor-patient relationship with more moral principals, something that public universities don’t have,” said Cavignano.

Vespas parked in front of a mural on the wall of a shuttered shop. | Photo by Trinna Leong.

A stark contrast to Rome, Napoli — as the Italians call it — is littered with garbage and graffiti. Though trash and pickpockets are everywhere, the city’s complicated history has created a unique façade for travelers to visit. Once a Greek colony, Naples later became a part of the Roman Republic and has over the years became a melting pot of different cultures and people. In modern times, however, local gangs control the city and this background gives the city a rough polish that one does not find in Rome. Graffiti on new and ancient walls, on monuments and on streets are not uncommon and have left an indelible mark on the city’s identity.

Websites like www.fatcap.com even has a page dedicated to all the graffiti found in Naples. One cannot miss the graffiti on the walls along streets and alleyways. Whether one chooses to view these as vandalism or art, is another question entirely…  Most of us had never been to Naples and did not know what to expect of the city. Having been to Rome earlier in the week, the sight of words and pictures sprayed coherently or incoherently everywhere in public spaces looks oddly jarring when placed against Baroque and Medieval buildings. Churches tucked in tight narrow streets have piles of garbage in one corner and slogans like “Mastiffs” or “Papa Vero” scribbled in ink on adjacent walls. In some cultures, this could be seen as offensive and disrespectful to a place of worship. But in Naples, no one seems to be bothered at all. “Mastiffs” is a local soccer team in Naples, and in Italy, soccer is king.

My initial reaction to the preposterous amount of graffiti everywhere was one of shock and bewilderment at the lack of appreciation Neapolitans show toward historic monuments. Buildings and statues that should have been treasured and taken care of have less than pretty words sprayed across them. It took a few hours before I calmed down and noticed that the words add a touch of character to the city and complement its tough image. I had to remind myself that this is not Rome. Naples is all about street cred and tourists who come to Naples should not expect to be greeted by a quaint city.

It soon became a game of “spot cool graffiti” as we tried to capture works of art with our cameras. From sentences that vented out people’s frustrations with the mafia (particularly the Camorra), religious devotion to saints and political activism, Naples’ spray-painted streets are unconventionally iconic. Eating the city’s famed pizza by a pile of trash next to a wall of graffiti even gave us a sense that we are already Neapolitan. Graffiti art in Europe is different from New York. It’s not just words on the walls of an urban city, it’s about the blend of both old and new cultures, and that’s what makes Naples what it is today.

See a collection of various photographs of Neapolitan graffiti, culled from the Religio staff.

Some of the pilgrims who travel to San Giovanni Rotondo every year come to ask Padre Pio for a cure or to thank him for being healed. Many of the miracles attributed to San Pio da Pietrelcina are related to impossible healings and mysterious cures, and the hospital built by the Capuchin friar in San Giovanni Rotondo, the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, is filled with believers who trust Padre Pio’s health-giving powers.

Agnes Reyes, 54, immigrated six years ago to Italy from the Philippines. Brought up in a very religious family, Reyes survived cancer and came to San Giovanni Rotondo for the first time this spring. She decided to embark on the pilgrimage as a means to thank the saint for her recovery and to pray for ill members of her family.

Maria Persichetti, on the other hand, is a 75-year-old from Veroli, four hours away from San Giovanni Rotondo. She comes every year with her family to Saint Pio’s shrine. She says her son-in-law was saved from a coma by Padre Pio, who appeared to him in dreams while he was in the hospital. “A miracle has happened,” she insists with a smile. “We have a lot of faith in Padre Pio.”

Bishop Siluan Span talks to our class surrounded by two nuns in the Romanian Orthodox chapel | Photo by Andrea Palatnik.

ROME — After four days of frantic reporting and nerve-wracking attempts trying to navigate through the Italian public transportation, the gang got onto a bus and headed out to the outskirts of Rome for fresh air and a nice tour of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the countryside.

The respite from throngs of tourists in the city was a welcome breather. We switched our attention from Michelangelo’s to soaking in the quiet serenity while drinking free champagne courtesy of Bishop Siluan Span who heads the chapel.

Simple and rustic, the chapel is part of a monastery that hosts the Romanian Orthodox diocese in Rome. A few nuns, a priest and a deacon occupy the monastery while living a communal life with eight pet dogs – one of them a very friendly blind retriever mix. Some of the dogs serve as guards since thieves are a concern in Via Ardeatina, one of the ancient Roman roads that lead to the city.

Surrounded by miles and miles of vineyards, Span’s parish deals mostly with Romanian immigrants coping with being far away from home and especially mothers who had to leave their family behind in their home country. Span brought up the issue of the bad image that Romanians have to deal with in Italy. According to the bishop, Romanians have often been perceived as criminals –even though, he argues, most Romanian youths have been excelling academically and are not the ones contributing to the crime rate.

“We don’t create tension, we just celebrate for our flock,” said Span.

He also complimented Pope Benedict XVI for being open to the Romanian community and for the support toward the integration of immigrants in the country.

Despite its size, the church says it also does charity work to provide for everyone in the area, regardless of ethnicity.

The Religio gang then left to head back to the city for an afternoon of frenzied reporting before regrouping for the next highlight of the day.

No doubt, the city is all about the view. During the tour to the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, our partner university for this trip, we climbed to the rooftop of the university to take one of our many group photos, with Rome’s skyline as our backdrop. The university is at a 14^th century building that included its own cathedral along with a chapel attached for daily mass. A pontifical university is a branch of Catholic university established under the authority of the Holy See. It is mostly a school for priests and nuns, although it is open to all and has a few lay people studying courses that range from theology, philosophy and canon law to church communications.

We took stock of the breathtaking sight of Piazza Navona before we began our next item on the itinerary.

Our trip to Rome would not have been complete if we did not meet all the ranks that make up the Catholic Church. The class has so far met a seminarian, father, archbishop and the Pope (well, okay, we didn’t actually meet the Pope… yet) in just four days. But of course, missing from the list mentioned was a cardinal. Second in rank after the Pope, cardinals are the ones who decide who the next Pope will be.

Cardinal Stafford answering a question from a student. l Photo by Trinna Leong.

Enter American Cardinal James Stafford, who though he came to the Vatican in 1998 as an archbishop, left as a cardinal after getting a promotion from Pope John Paul II.

Cardinal Stafford brought up the topic of changes in the laity movement, shared his experiences with Pope John Paul II and had a lively debate with Professor Alexander Stille on contraception. We also discovered that Cardinal Stafford enjoys the odd Foucault reference…

The day then ended with the gang heading over to Sicomoro restaurant for a feast of and conversation with two religion reporters, Gerard O’Connell and Francis Rocca. Both shared their thoughts on the importance of religion reporting as well as their experiences reporting on the Catholic Church and other religions.

A tiring day in all, we walked out of the restaurant and had a night view of St Peters as we strolled back to our hotel, exhausted and stuffed — yet again — with pasta.

Pope Benedict XVI during a papal audience at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. | Photo by Trinna Leong.

“A mother who went to communion came back home and her son, seeing her, quickly asked, ‘Is He inside you?’”

“The mother said ‘Yes’ and the boy knelt in presence of Christ who is in her.”

The Rev. Deo Rosales told that story to a group of 30 middle-aged women at a retreat for professional women at the New York headquarters of Opus Dei in Midtown East. The women sat quietly as the priest lectured in a calm monotonous tone that barely showed any emotion.  His message, as illustrated in the story of the child and mother, was that the women should pay special attention to the Eucharist because it is the center of Catholic worship. He preached about the virtues of attending mass while weaving in the historical importance of the ceremony the mass.

“The greatest event in history,” Rosales said, “is the sacrifice of God.”

Opus Dei, a conservative lay organization, is the first and only Personal Prelature of the Catholic Church. Personal prelature is an institution in the Catholic Church comprising of a prelate, clergy and laity.

However, the mostly-private organization has many followers, including some influential wealthy supporters who have kept its 16-floor building on Lexington Avenue and 34^th Street open and active. Every Saturday afternoon, lay members meet for a recollection session at either Murray Hill Place, the headquarters or Alderton House, the residential hall for women and retreats are held several times a year for members of different demographics. For example, young professional women and older married professional women have their own separate retreats, twice a year each.

Father Rosales is an Opus Dei priest and a Chaplain at Schuyler Hall, a center for young men that work toward helping youths go through professional and character development. During the meditation, Rosales repeatedly emphasized the importance of mass because of God’s contributions, and reminded the congregants to not forget or sideline the mass.

“In the bloody sacrifices of the Holy Sacrament, Christ turned his flesh into bread and his blood into wine,” he goes on explaining.

Just as the Super Bowl was available to sports goers worldwide, Rosales felt the same with God.

“Last Sunday, the Super Bowl was important for some people,” he said, drawing comparison between sports and religion.

“That event was made present to thousands of places through television so many people can participate in it,” he added. “Just as how sports is available everywhere, God made his presence everywhere. Through space, through time.”

His congregants, all were dressed immaculately, sat quietly throughout the meditation session, which was attended by married women, most of them mothers.  ,.

Rosales provided many examples to convey his point, while quoting Pope Benedict XVI and Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei who was elevated to sainthood by John Paul II. .

“As Pope Benedict said, ‘Only a communion with Christ does the world become a mirror of what we see it to be.”

The Opus Dei chapel where the group met is unlike what one would see in a Baptist church, which is often loud with plenty of joyous singing. Here, no one speaks during meditation except for the priest and the congregants sit solemnly, not even muttering a single “yeah” or “praise the Lord.”

The focus was on Rosales and his words.

“Christ is more than a symbol. The Eucharist should be the center of existence in each of us,” he emphasized more than once.

In some ways, the meditation session served more as a reminder to congregants on their basic practice in particular while attending the mass.

“Hopefully you are not asleep in mass,” Rosales said. “ Hopefully you fight against distractions. Hopefully you review the readings before you go to mass. Hopefully you are not late, early at least. Prepare yourself. Be hopeful in receiving our God. With joy. Welcoming Him.”

Father Rosales told another story to capture the audience’s attention.

“There was this man taking a walk with a friend. When they passed by a Catholic church, he tells his friend, ‘Oh I have this custom of paying respect to the Blessed Sacrament, would you like to come in with me?’ His friend said ‘No’.”

“When he came out, his friend jokingly teased him and said, ‘So what did he tell you?’”

“He said, ‘He told me that he’s waiting for you.”

With that, the crowd laughed softly, hardly hinting toward the type of uproarious laughter one would see in Nazarene or Baptist churches.

Father Rosales then wraps up the session and knelt a few feet away from the tabernacle. He said the closing of the “mental prayer”, a form of prayer where one meditates on God’s words.

“I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections and inspirations that you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help to put them into effect. My immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.”

Opus Dei. | Photo courtesy of The AP.

The chapel was dimly lit as female believers started walking in, each pausing to kneel on one knee before moving into the pew. One of them, a pregnant woman in her late twenties carefully bent down with her right hand holding onto the bench and her eyes looking straight ahead to the tabernacle.

Genuflection, an act of devotion by touching one knee to the ground is symbolized in the Catholic Church as a mark of respect in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. These days, however, it is uncommon to find most practitioners genuflecting in churches. At most, churchgoers cross themselves upon entry into their place of worship.

In Opus Dei’s New York headquarters at 139 East 34 Street, all the believers who came for a spiritual retreat in the center genuflect.

“Every time I enter the church, I see the Blessed Sacrament as the person I look up to,” said Isabel Munarriz, 29, an attorney based in the city.

“It’s not a piece of bread, it’s a person who is there,” she added.

Though seven months pregnant, Munarriz does not skip the act. Before each mass during the three-day retreat, she helped set up the altar for prayer and cleared it when the service was over. She would walk up to the front of the altar, bend down before walking into the room in the corner of the chapel to take the ciborium, a metal cup to hold the bread and chalice, a goblet to hold wine to be used during the Holy Communion. After she placed the items on the altar, she genuflects again before heading back to her seat.

This simple act of bending one’s knee is done at least ten times throughout the day during the young professional women’s retreat organized by Opus Dei in its Midtown East center. From its meditation sessions to daily mass, each practitioner never failed to genuflect.

“There was a time I curtsied instead of properly genuflecting then my mom told me, ‘Isabel, you need to do it on one knee, it’s respect!’” Manurriz said with laughter.

The earliest historical record of the practice of genuflecting goes back to the Persians who used it to pay their respect to their king. Over time, the Western world caught up with the act and its usage spread in churches during the Middle Ages. Christians however first bowed low to bishops before the ritual of genuflection to the Blessed Sacrament was introduced and gained prominence as an obligatory act in the fifteenth century.

Members of Opus Dei still view simple ritual acts in Christianity as important and strictly adhere to its practices. Genuflecting is no exception.

“It’s an encounter with Jesus. A sign of respect,” said Manurriz expressing her views on why she genuflects in churches.

“It’s like a greeting and a goodbye. Genuflect is a different way of communicating. I try to do it with my heart,” added Manurriz.

For each believer, the lighted candles by the tabernacle marked the presence of Jesus Christ in the chapel and it is the first thing they look for upon stepping foot into the room.

“If you enter the church and see the candles are lighted, you know the Blessed Sacrament is there so you greet him by genuflecting,” said Rose Marie Cosio, 40, a banker who has been with Opus Dei for 15 years.

“When I’m in front of the altar, I’m in front of the king of kings. That’s the most important part,” Cosio added.

Raya Jalabi and Aby Sam Thomas contributed reporting.

In the changing Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, one church holds its own as the bedrock for its congregants – young and old.