Thursday of the 2nd Week of Lent - Station Church - Santa Maria in Trastevere. Gorgeous church, I don't think any introduction is needed! The main celebrant for the Mass was Cardinal Stafford, which was nice. His homily was a bit long and... interesting (all of it seemed to center on his imploring us to see that Lazarus the begger is in all the beggers of Rome and that we should *always* give them money, to the point of preparing money for them before leaving the house - I think the good Cardinal has a bit of a merciful streak from his work at the Penitentiary... Fine, of course, but in my experience with the begging population here, I don't think I'm going to follow that advice - well-meaning as it is! Food, yes, money, nope - they don't see any of it anyway, as is clear from the expensive cars that drive the beggers in groups to different key begging locations - there's funny business going on here that I want no part of supporting financially!)