Picked Up in Rome: What Vocatio Travel Taught Me About Hospitality

by Rosie Chinea Shawver, MDiv

Good hospitality starts before you have to ask for anything. Vocatio Travel reminded me of that in Rome last month.

Tara and I went to Rome in October for the International Congress on Pastoral Care in Schools and Universities. We carried the work of campus ministers across the country with us. We also carried the question every traveler carries after a long flight: how do I get where I need to go?

Vocatio, an affiliate member and friend of CCMA, answered it before we had to. They picked us up at the airport when we arrived. On our last day, they took us back.

Two car rides are not the headline of a week that included Pope Leo's address to the Congress. But I keep coming back to them.

Campus ministers will understand why. We know what it means when someone notices the new student at the door. We often talk about accompaniment. Someone meeting you when you land is accompaniment in its plainest form.

Then there was the Fiat

Vocatio also took us on a tour of Rome in a vintage green Fiat 500.

We rattled over the cobblestones with the roof open. We passed the colonnade of St. Peter's and climbed the Janiculum to the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola, the great fountain Pope Paul V finished in 1612. Tara and I stood up through the roof with our arms in the air. I would like to report that we looked dignified. We did not. We looked like two very happy women in a very small car.

It was pure joy. I needed that before a week of serious conversations about the Church and the next generation. Rome can feel like a list of places you are supposed to see. From a Fiat, it felt like a city to enjoy.

Why I'm telling you

Many of you take students on pilgrimage, or hope to. You know how much sits behind a trip like that: the planning, the logistics, the worry about the student who gets separated from the group. You also know how much it can change someone.

Vocatio Travel is a Catholic travel company with offices in Dallas and Rome. It plans pilgrimages, mission trips and educational tours, and it has worked with campus ministry before, including an Elon University trip to Rome and the sites of St. Francis.

Vocatio gave us that tour so I am not a neutral party. I can only tell you how they treated us. They were attentive, generous and fun, and they made two tired travelers feel at home in Rome. If you are dreaming about a trip with your students, they are worth a conversation.

Vocatio means calling. I think about that when I remember the ride in from the airport. No one hears a call alone. Someone has to show up and say, “You made it. We've got you from here.”

Thank you to the whole Vocatio team. Grazie mille.