Headteacher's Blog Post - Saturday 31st May 2025

This month I would like to share with you, instead of my own reflections, those of a group of our pupils who had the very special experience of visiting Rome and Assisi last month. This was intended to be for the canonisation of Blessed Carlo Acutis, as our pupils will be aware. This was postponed, however, due to the death of His Holiness, Pope Francis, as referenced in the April blog post in this section of our website. The pupils nevertheless had a rich experience of visiting these locations, and of being present in Rome for the funeral of the Holy Father. They have shared their reflections with the school and with the parish community. They would like to express their thanks for the fundraising support that made this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity possible for them. I share with you, then, their own words, which follow:

“We would like to say that our trip to Rome has been a huge success. We were blessed to see the funeral of His Holiness Pope Francis. God has blessed us with sight to see many beautiful places in Rome and Assisi. In Assisi, we went to see St. Mary of Angels Basilica and we were shocked to see a mini church inside a massive basilica. We were struck in awe to see all the beautiful paintings and statues; God has truly blessed the hands of these artists.

We also went to see the rose garden of Saint Francis; in the garden we saw that every single rose had NO THORNS. We were also told that if any rose with thorns was planted within this garden, it would wither away quickly and only the rose without thorns would stay in this beautiful garden. We saw the tunic and the body of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Claire.

One of our favourite moments was seeing Blessed Carlo Acutis’ body. When we touched his case, we would feel ourselves being immersed in the Holy Spirit. Along with that, we had Holy Mass every single day to thank God for our safe journey, to pray for our time there and to pray for all of you. We also got to see pilgrims from other countries such as Italy, Portugal and even pilgrims from Blessed Carlo Acutis School! Seeing people our age praise the Lord gave us a different sense of fulfilment, it felt like God has called to be there because he wanted us to personally spend more time with him.

When we went to St Peter’s Square, we were consumed by the hustle of massive crowds desperate to attend His Holiness’ funeral. By the grace of God, we were able to get a good view of the funeral, and we were able to pray for the repose of His Holiness. When we came back from our trip, we discovered that all the clouds were covering Italy while leaving the sun to shine in St Peter’s Square. It was very hot, we suppose you could say that we were burnt with blessings!

We also had the wonderful opportunity to enter the Holy Doors, and we are proud to proclaim that we have received the Plenary Indulgence. We felt that when we stepped foot into the Holy Doors of Saint Peter’s Basilica, we felt that we were not worthy of entering. We can’t believe we were so lucky to attend such a once in a lifetime opportunity! 

When coming back home we felt very sad that our pilgrimage in Rome has come to an end, but we know that we will come back and hopefully one day, others will come with us too! Our time in Rome has been a sense of change, renewal, revival, a restoration of faith and we hope that from this trip, we are able to transform into the pilgrims of hope that God has called us to be.”

We have reflected on our individual experiences as follows:

Clearly, the experience was truly memorable and truly life-changing. We are proud of the way our young people engaged in this important and historic event: they are certainly pilgrims of hope, acting as beacons of light to all of us around them.

Mrs Pole