Chiesa di San Gaetano

Six lowered shutters on six shop eyes, on the corner of Via Tuscania and Via Canino, at the beginning of Via Flaminia Nuova, face the new temple of the Parish of San Gaetano dei Chierici Regolari or Teatini. Those premises, destined for commercial use, and their basement, for seventeen years, that is, until the new church was ready, were the cradle of the spring parish community erected by decree of the then Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Micara, in 1962, to provide the population with spiritual assistance appropriate to the foreseeable expansion of the outskirts of North Rome and less inconvenient, given the distance from the nearest churches.The Temple was part of the realisation plan of the Pontifical Work for the Preservation of the Faith. What is a neighbourhood without a bell tower? A poor agglomeration.It was therefore with a pioneering, indeed missionary spirit, that the Theatine Fathers began work in the small community.Today, the Temple, built on a circular plan, reminiscent of classical Rome, rises on an open perspective of lawns and hills, according to a liturgically functional design (lines and interior spaces converge at the centre of the altar, where the divine mysteries are celebrated), sober but airy and luminous, surmounted by a short dome on which the Cross stands tall, seemingly consecrating this part of the sky of Rome. It stands surrounded by plants and flowers, tended with religious love, for the decorum of God's house and for the joy of the eyes.A decisive contribution to the construction of the new church, both in procedural and economic aspects, was made by the close, albeit sometimes painful, cooperation between the Pontifical Work for the Preservation of the Faith and the Italian Province of the Clerics Regular (Theatines), a conspicuous intervention by the Ministry of Public Works, considerable help from the Theatines of the Catholic Community of Cologne (Germany) through its Pastor, as well as the many and sometimes generous drops of water from the small community formed in the small parish church in Via Canino.Figures cannot express the suggestion or poetry of the events, but for chronology's sake let us recall that on 22 April 1979 the Vicar of Rome, Card. Poletti, consecrated the Church, which was crowded with devotees, even in the women's gallery, and his words, recalling the situation in Rome, the problem of new churches, the mission of the priesthood and the vocation of the faithful, left a deep impression on the spirits. At Christmas 1978, Father Michael, the first parish priest, celebrated the first Mass in the new church, after a fiery Christmas vigil. Crowds, emotion, gratitude to God.And now? With the life of worship, more and more works testify to the growth of the new parish community, the stone temple is but the sign of the communion of souls in Christ the Lord and Redeemer, for the salvation of all and for the good of human society.