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ROME — The ad limina visit has been an intense time for all of the bishops of Region XIV. Each day included Mass and meetings which made free time a bit scarce.

Bishop Peter Jugis used the little bit of free time he had while in Rome to attend to two of the things that are important to him: his prayer life and his seminarians.

"On Thursday afternoon there were a few hours of free time built into our schedule, so I asked our seminarians if they had free time if they would take me to go visit the university where they attend their classes, Sante Croce University," he said.

The university is about a 20 minute walk from the North American College where the seminarians live.

"We had a nice walk over to the university strolling through Rome, visiting the university, their classrooms, the nice church which is attached to the university, the Basilica of Sant Apollinare.

They were able to obtain a key for us to go up on the roof of the university and get a nice view of the skyline of Rome."

The Diocese of Charlotte currently has five seminarians studying at the North American College in Rome.

"I was happy to do that because now I have been able to visit our seminarians at all three seminaries. ...It was very beneficial for me to see the environment where all of our seminarians are pursuing their formation for the priesthood."

Bishop Jugis has had very little unstructured time on this ad limina visit, and even though the seminarians have served Mass for the bishops and seen him there, his trip to see them really meant a lot to them too.

"Then on Friday morning, after the meeting for the Congregation for Catholic Education, I went to St. Peter's and spent a few hours of time there in personal prayer in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel praying for the diocese before heading on to another meeting," Bishop Jugis said.

"I was happy for the few hours of unscheduled free time that we had here and there just to be able to tend to prayer and then to have time for the visit to the university."

— SueAnn Howell, staff writer

Read more about the whole trip in SueAnn's blog charlotteadlimina.tumblr.com