25 March 1985
After enjoying the extraordinary and truly Christian hospitality of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary for four full years at 19 Via Ferruccio, ICCRO has moved to spacious and centrally located new premises in a Vatican building, the Palazzo della Cancelleria. On the feast of the Annunciation (March 25, 1985), large moving vans achieved the transfer successfully, and the work of serving the Church worldwide (including the organizing of three 1985 conferences of Catholic Charismatic Renewal) was resumed almost immediately in this new, rented office.
ICCRO now has Vatican telephone numbers (698.5392, 698.5374) as well as a Vatican postal address, yet is situated outside Vatican City in the heart of downtown Rome. The building, a masterpiece of the Renaissance, was built in 1486, and has served as the former Chancellery of the Rome archdiocese, as well as a former Parliament building of the Roman Republic. A magnificent Aula in the building can seat 600 (concerts and conferences are held there) and has a large fresco painted by Vasari in a hundred days. The venerable Basilica of St. Lawrence in Damaso forms part of the same building, and is almost as old as St. Peter’s. The ancient Church erected by Pope St. Damasus (380) in honor of the deacon Lawrence was demolished about 1484, and over it Bramante built the present Basilica. This too was restored after the Napoleonic invasion, in 1868-82. This Basilica contains very old paintings and antique crosses of wood.
In such providential surroundings, ICCRO hopes to continue its services (and to expand them) to leaders of the Renewal worldwide, and to the whole Church. Please join us in thanking God for this move, and support us with your special prayers. We too pray daily in the Office (we have Mass on alternate days) for every country’s needs, and for all who support us. We thank the FMM sisters again publicly for their wonderful support to ICCRO over the last four years, and pray that Jesus, who alone knows how best to reward them, will bless them abundantly with every good gift.
Taken from the ICCRO Newsletter, March-April 1985
