Travel Information

It is the hope of the 2026 Diaconate Planning Committee (DPC) that this resource will help you and your guests with the planning of travel for your guests during Diaconate week. Please look over this document carefully (especially Part 1).

  1. Faculty Suggestions
  2. Sample Itinerary for Diaconate Week
  3. Popular Travel Websites
  4. Bus Companies in Rome
  5. Getting Around Rome
  6. Popular Sites in Rome
  7. Top Ten Churches to Visit in Rome

Faculty Suggestions

  • Deacon candidates should be in contact with pastors or diocesan priests who may be planning a pilgrimage to the ordination. 
  • These priests and their travel agents should work through the deacon candidate and the DPC regarding details of diaconate week.  All questions/queries regarding Masses, receptions, holy hours, tours, and tickets should go through the deacon candidate and the DPC.  Asking a few questions around the parish or diocese this spring about potential pilgrimages to Rome in September/October will hopefully eliminate any surprises in September and October.
  • NAC guest rooms:  Generally rooms – during diaconate week – are reserved for bishops and diocesan vocation directors.  Student guest rooms, on the student corridors, may be reserved for seminarian brothers, or male family members (brothers and fathers of candidates).  Also, priests who are not diocesan vocation directors, but are directly involved with a candidates’ formation – pastor, former vocation directors, etc. – may also stay in a student guest room. Reservations for these rooms are made through the individual candidates in spring.

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Notable Events of Ordination Week:

  • Sunday, September 27th: Join the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, for his Sunday Angelus at noon in Saint Peter’s Square. Check his online public schedule a few days before to confirm he is holding his Angelus on this day.
    • In the early evening, a family Mass will be held in the Immaculate Conception Chapel of the Pontifical North American College. Anyone wishing to attend this Mass should coordinate with their deacon candidate.
  • Wednesday, September 30th: Join Pope Leo XIV in Saint Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience, at 10:00AM. Tickets for this event can be obtained through your deacon candidate.
    • At 5:00PM, at a church in the city to be determined, a prayer vigil will be held for pilgrims. This will include a reflection by a faculty member of the Pontifical North American College, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation available in English and Spanish.
  • Thursday, October 1st: The big day! The Mass for the Ordination to the Diaconate will take place at 6:00PM, inside the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter. Tickets can be obtained for this through your deacon candidate. Information regarding entrance to Saint Peter’s will be on the backside of each ticket.
    • After the conclusion of Mass, a reception will be held at the Pontifical North American College for families and friends of the new deacons.
  • Friday, October 2nd: Many of the newly ordained deacons will preach a Mass of thanksgiving in various churches throughout the city.

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Bus Companies in Rome

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Getting Around Rome

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Popular Sites in Rome

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Top Ten Churches to Visit in Rome

  • St. Peter’s Basilica (Piazza San Pietro)
    • The greatest church in Christendom. Too much to say and describe without writing at least a few paragraphs, but suffice to say that it is a masterpiece of architecture and under the iconic high altar rest the bones of the Prince of the Apostles.
  • St. John Lateran (Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano, 4)
    • The official title of the church is Papal Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran, and such a chain of honorifics is justified for the Cathedral of Rome. Notable are its beautiful Cosmatesque floor, the high altar that contains the skulls of Saints Peter and Paul in twin reliquaries, and the connected Baptistery—the first in the world—and the Holy Stairs and Sancta Sanctorum, formerly part of the (now destroyed) Lateran Palace.
  • St. Paul’s Outside the Walls (Piazzale San Paolo, 1)
    • Originally founded by Constantine over the burial place of Saint Paul, its current form is the result of a nineteenth-century reconstruction that was necessary because of a catastrophic fire in 1823. Nevertheless, it retains the rather primitive character of a Roman basilica, with a grand central nave and unadorned columns. The mosaics that survived the fire date from the 400s.
  • St. Mary Major (Piazza del Esquilino, 34)
    • One of Rome’s five papal basilicas, Santa Maria Maggiore is the largest church dedicated to Mary in Rome, and houses an important relic under its high altar: the crib in which the Child Jesus rested in Bethlehem. A side chapel contains an icon beloved of the Roman people, “Salus Populi Romani.”
  • Santa Maria in Trastevere (Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere)
    • Santa Maria in Trastevere is one of Rome’s oldest churches and believed to be the first church in the world where Mass was publicly celebrated after the legalization of Christianity in 313 AD. It originally dates from the late third to the early fourth century but was rebuilt in the twelfth century. The church is famous for a Byzantine mosaic behind the altar and a number of medieval mosaics. The piazza has a beautiful octagonal fountain.
  • San Clemente (Via Labicana, 95)
    • San Clemente, near the Coliseum, is a perfect example of how history still exists in layers in Rome’s churches. The current twelfth century church features probably the most beautiful mosaic in Rome, and sits on top of a fourth century church built over a first century Christian meeting place that’s above a first century BC Mithraic temple and school.
  • Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (Piazza della Repubblica)
    • This church was constructed (according to plans drawn up by Michelangelo) inside the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian. The layout is unique, in that the transept, which runs crosswise to the nave, is longer. It also houses a fascinating solar median that was formerly used to calculate the time in Renaissance to early modern Rome.
  • Sant’Agostino (Piazza di Sant’Agostino)
    • One of the first Roman churches built during the Renaissance, it holds the tomb of Saint Monica, Saint Augustine’s mother. There is also a very popular devotional statue inside, Nostra Signora del Parto, a devotion to Our Lady as protectress of pregnant women and mothers.
  • Sant’Ignazio (Via del Caravita, 8a)
    • Another example of the exuberant Baroque style that the Jesuits popularized throughout Europe, Sant’Ignazio is a worthy companion of the nearby Gesù. The bodies of Jesuit saints John Berchmans and Aloysius Gonzaga are entombed under side altars inside.
  • Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Piazza della Minerva, 42)
    • Santa Maria sopra Minerva is one of Rome’s only Gothic style churches. It was built in the thirteenth century over what was believed to have been the Temple of Minerva (actually the Temple of Isis). Inside is a sculpture by Michelangelo and the tombs of Saint Catherine, Fra Angelico, and some of the Medici popes. Outside is a Bernini sculpture of an elephant with an obelisk on its back.

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