Now we're rolling on the photo front...This is a shot David Ryan got of the archbishop on the Bridge of Angels this morning (see "Sean O'Malley's Rome" item below).

David says he made this picture because he thought it had several interesting elements. The archbishop, who had not previously been all that comfortable with the news media, is surrounded by cameras and "wired for sound," with the battery pack of a wireless microphone of a TV station clearly visible on the knotted white rope belt around his brown habit. You can also see the cords of several other microphones emerging from under the pointy Capuchin hood and running down his back toward his front pockets, where reporters had stashed four more battery packs.

On the archbishop's head, notice the purple (OK, in real life it looks fuschia, but the church says the color is Roman purple) zucchetto (that's the skullcap); that will be replaced by a scarlet one on Friday, when O'Malley becomes a cardinal. The statues you see in the background are of angels (hence the bridge's name); the woman in red is Lisa Hughes of CBS4.

OK, so it's my first time blogging, and I've had a few technical difficulties figuring this out from Rome, but here at last is a nice photo David Ryan shot of Archbishop O'Malley talking to the news media at North American College on Tuesday. If this works, I'll try to post more of David's work soon.

Archbishop O'Malley said today that about 60 members of his family -- that's six-zero -- are coming to Rome for the Friday consistory at which he will be made a cardinal.

"They're beginning to arrive in droves," he said. "I don't know whether Rome is ready for this."

O'Malley said his relatives are coming from South Florida, Cleveland, Denver, and a variety of other locales.

"I said at my installation that all the O'Malleys came, except the ones we weren't talking to," he said. "But I think even the ones we're not talking to are coming to this."

For those of you who can't get enough of ecclesiastical vesture, hierarchical happenings and consistory chatter, check out one of the hottest blogs in the universe of Catholic bloggery that some call St. Blog's Parish: Whispers in the Loggia. Currently on tap -- checking in on the other American cardinal-designate (Arcbishop Levada, formerly of San Francisco and now of the Vatican), concern about Friday's forecast (are birettas waterproof?) and much more.

This just in: parishioners occupying six closed churches in and around Boston plan to gather Thursday to urge Cardinal O'Malley to turn his attention back to them.

The vigilers (vigilists?) will congratulate O'Malley on his elevation to cardinal, ask him to redouble his efforts to address their concerns, and will request, as a sign of goodwill, that he send each of them a priest to say at least one Mass during Holy Week, according to Peter Borre, the co-chairman of the Council of Parishes.

"We don't want to rain on his parade," Borre said in a phone interview, presumably unaware that it's currently pouring in Rome, "but we think now is the time to resolve amicably the situation."

Borre said council members will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. at St. James the Great in Wellesley; among the participants will be parishioners who have been occupying closed churches for more than 500 days, and parishioners at two churches, Holy Trinity in the South End and St. Bernard in West Newton, facing possible closing in the not-too-distant future.

The Archdiocese of Boston soon plans to announce that it has achieved the $12 million it set as a goal for the 2005 Annual Catholic Appeal.

The archdiocesan development folks are slowly rebuilding after the church's fundraising operation took a huge hit during the sexual abuse crisis. Last year they raised $11 million. They're still way down from the $17 million they raised in 1999, but edging back up from $8.8 million in 2002.

Arcbishop O'Malley said in an interview last week that the archdiocese is looking for a new chief development officer to replace Kenneth J. Hokenson, whose has headed the archdiocesan development office since 2001. "We also have a study going on, on the development efforts of the archdiocese, and how to improve those, and also how the archdiocese can help the parishes in their efforts at fund-raising and development," O'Malley said.

The cardinal-designate this morning led the Boston press corps on a walking tour of the Ponte Sant'Angelo (the Bridge of Angels), which he said was one of his favorite spots in Rome (in part, he confessed, because "it is a footbridge, so you can walk here without worrying you're going to get run over by a motorscooter.") The lovely span, over an unappealingly greenish Tiber River, is more than 2,100 years old, sits just beneath the imposing Castel Sant'Angelo, and features a series of statues of angels symbolizing moments of Jesus's passion.

The walk was more than a bit stagy. Archbishop O'Malley gamely allowed television crews to place five (!) battery packs for wireless microphones in the deep pockets of his brown habit and to hide their cords under his long brown hood. The archbishop then joked that he was so weighted down with audio equipment that, "if I fall into the river, I'll sink to the bottom," and, as he submitted to a final wiring by a late arrival, mused, "I just hope I don't get struck by lightning."

But the walk was nonetheless a chance for the archbishop to talk about his relationship to the Eternal City, which he said he has visited often for pilgrimages and meetings over the last 40 years, although he has never lived here. He said his favorite churches, where he likes to pray, are the fantastical Il Gesù, which is the main church of the Jesuit order and includes an altar dedicated to St. Ignatius of Loyola; the Chiesa Nuova, where St. Philip Neri is buried; and, at night, the Santa Maria in Via Lata, where, legend says, St. Paul lived for a time.

"So much of our history is here, that it really is a very edifying experience to be in Rome,'' he said. "It's the center of Christendom. There are so many symbols of our faith, and the example of the martyrs and the early Christian writers. As many times as I've been here, it never gets old. It's always exciting to come back. It's always a thrill.''

A Vatican-related news item: the Rev. Thomas J. Reese has found a new home.

Reese, a Jesuit priest frequently featured in the media as an authority on the American and Roman church hierarchies, garnered national attention last May when he resigned after seven years as editor of America magazine, the Jesuit weekly, over concern from Pope Benedict XVI about the magazine's coverage of controversial issue.

For the last year, Reese has been on sabbatical at Santa Clara University in California; yesterday, Georgetown University announced that it is appointing Reese as a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center. Reese, previously a fellow at the institute from 1985 to 1998, will study contemporary Catholic Church issues, ethics and public policy, and religion and politics.

Archbishop O’Malley, the first Capuchin Franciscan friar to become a cardinal in nearly 50 years, has made it clear that it will be a stretch for him to accept some of the trappings of his new office, such as the honorific, “Your Eminence,” to which he will be entitled after Friday. Asked how people should address him once he is a cardinal, he said yesterday, “Cardinal Sean. Bishop Sean. Father Sean. Brother Sean. Whatever.’’

“It takes some getting used to,’’ he said of the prelature nomenclature. “When I went to the West Indies, the two hardest things to get used to were driving on the left and being called, ‘Your Lordship’.’’

In addition to getting his new vestments, O’Malley said he has spent his time since arriving here Sunday praying, attending meetings, and entertaining relatives.

“My O’Malley clan is beginning to arrive, piece by piece,’’ he said. “I took my nephews and their wives to Piazza Navona for ice cream."