It’s a little known Vatican fact but the Pope has his own train
station.
Thing is, it’s been dormant for years – until now.
May 21 will
see a 1930s steam train leave the Vatican City Station for a trip to the
Italian countryside.
And it’s all to raise money for the Holy See’s
official charity, Caritas.
“It’s a rare opportunity and certainly a very joyful way to come
together ahead of our General Assembly and reflect on who we are and
where we are going,” Monsignor Robert J. Vitillo, head of the Caritas
International delegation to Geneva, told Vatican Radio May 11.
The event coincides with Caritas’s 19th International Assembly being held in Rome as well as their 60th anniversary.
It total, five passenger carriages will be pulled by steam engine.
The train is being nicknamed the “Caritas Express” for the day and each
engine will be dedicated to a particular patron saint of the poor and
vulnerable.
Seats are still available to the general public.
The day will also see the huge iron gates that mark the border between Italy and the Vatican opened for the first time in years.
And their destination?
The historic city of Orvieto in Umbria, about 60 miles to the north of Rome.
The Vatican City State Station was built under the Lateran Treaty of
1929 which normalized relationships between the Holy See and the Italian
State.
When he saw it under construction, Pope Pius XI described it as
“the most beautiful station in the world.”
Pope Pius XI never traveled on the line himself and his planned papal
train was never built.
It was Pope John XXII who became the first
pontiff to travel on line, using the Italian presidential train, in
1962. He made the trip between the Vatican City Station and Assisi.
Pope
John Paul II also traveled on the line in 1979 and 2002.
In the past, emergency relief supplies have also been loaded at the
“Pope’s Platform” onto special Caritas trains for delivery to flood
victims in northern Italy and elsewhere.
The Caritas Express will pull out of the Vatican State Railway
Station at 10 a.m. on May 21.
It will return to Termini Station in Rome
at 7:30 p.m.
Anyone interested in making a donation and wishing to request a seat on the train should email express@caritas.va