Photo Caption: U.S. bishops from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, including Bishop Jenky, pray at the tomb of St. Peter before concelebrating Mass in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 9.

By: By Catholic Post and Catholic News Service staff

Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Region VII — which includes the states of Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin — started their “ad limina” visits to Rome Feb. 9 with morning Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, before the Altar of the Tomb of St. Peter.

The group includes Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, and a small contingent from the Diocese of Peoria.

During their visit, which will end Feb. 17, the bishops will discuss a wide range of pastoral matters with Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican officials. A major theme is likely to be the new evangelization, which will be the subject of a Vatican synod this October. In recent weeks, the pope has told other visiting American bishops of the urgent need to defend religious freedom against the threat of “radical secularism.”

The bishops’ periodic visits are formally called “ad limina apostolorum,” which means “to the thresholds of the apostles” Peter and Paul, who were martyred in Rome. Traditionally, the visits serve as an occasion for leaders of local churches to draw inspiration as well as guidance from the center of Catholicism.

The spiritual aspect of “ad limina” visits is most evident in the liturgies that the bishops concelebrate at Rome’s four major basilicas: St. John Lateran, St. Peter’s, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major. The Region VII bishops will return to St. Peter’s Feb. 11 for Mass at the Altar of Blessed John Paul II.

Coordinated by Msgr. Stanley Deptula, director of the diocesan Office of Divine Worship and executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, the diocesan group left Monday, Feb. 6, and return on Saturday, Feb. 18. Making the trip with Bishop Jenky are Msgr. Paul Showalter and Msgr. James Kruse, vicars general of the Diocese of Peoria, and Patricia Gibson, chancellor, and her daughter.

Due to the death of Pope John Paul II and the election and installation of Pope Benedict XVI, it has been seven years since the bishops of Region VII have made an ad limina visit. Msgr. Deptula said their meeting with the pope is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 17.

The group will be guests at a reception at the home of the United States ambassador to the Holy See, Dr. Miguel Humberto Diaz, a personal friend of Bishop Jenky’s from his days at the University of Notre Dame.

In addition, Msgr. Deptula said they will visit the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, postulator for the cause for the beatification and canonization of Fulton Sheen, and hope to return with an update.

They also are meeting with Msgr. Richard Soseman, a priest of the Diocese of Peoria who currently ministers at the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy.