ABOUT THE TRAVEL

This study Tourgrimage begins at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 13, 2025 and ends after supper on Friday, February 21, 2025. You must travel on or before February 12, 2025, to arrive on time and depart on or after February 22, 2025.

A study Tourgrimage is part tour, part pilgrimage and part of a course. In that spirit, we will visit several of the shrines dedicated to the memory of the original members of the three orders of the Franciscan family. The tourgrimage will take place in Franciscan Rome, Inspirational Assisi and Evangelical Rieti.

This itinerary is designed to help us experience the spirituality and art of the Franciscan tradition. For this reason, we have prepared an itinerary to help us get the most out of our time in Italy.

The cost of the program for auditors is $3,350 plus airfare.

The cost of the program for CTU students is $2700 plus 1.5 credit tuition and plus airfare.

The program cost includes shared accommodations, a half pension (breakfast plus 1 meal) in Rome, a full pension (breakfast plus 2 meals) in Assisi, ground transportation, and museum tickets.

THE CTU IN ITALY VIDEO

ABOUT THE PROFESSOR

Br. Gilberto Cavazos-González, OFM is a Tejano, a Friar Minor (Franciscan) and Professor of the Theological Study of Christian Spirituality. He taught for 15 years at the Catholic Theological Union before moving to Rome to work at the Pontifical University Antonianum (PUA). In March of 2020 he became the pontifically appointed Secretary of the Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis (PAMI). In June of 2022 Pope Francisco freed him from his position with PAMI so that he could return to CTU as Professor of Spirituality and the John Duns Scotus Chair of Franciscan Spirituality.

Gilberto lived in Rome for almost 15 years, first as a doctoral student in the 1990s and, more recently, working for the PUA, the PAMI and the OFM general curia. Besides being a Franciscan, he is a Franciscanologist who specializes in the spirituality of Clare and Francis of Assisi as expressed in their own writings.

Gilberto has published several books, beginning with Greater than a Mother’s Love: The Spirituality of Francis and Clare of Assisi. He recently co-edited a book called Evolving Methods for the Study of Spirituality (Peeter’s 2023). He is completing a book on the Marian Spirituality of Sor Juana de la Cruz Vasquez Gutierrez, a Spanish Franciscan sister who was a mystic, a pastor and a preacher to royalty, prelates, nuns and her parishioners in the early 1500s. Friar Gilberto organizes and preaches retreats and workshops for the Franciscan family. As a result, he is writing a spiritual formation book focusing on the five pillars of Franciscan/Clarian Spirituality.

He is currently working on a book on the Marian Spirituality of Sor Juana de la Cruz Vasquez Gutierrez, a Spanish Franciscan sister who was a mystic, a pastor and a preacher to royalty, prelates, nuns and her parishioners in the early 1500s.