Why pizzas, some may ask

Although pictures of the Last Supper tend to rule out the presence of pizza at the first Communion, pizza is clearly the Lord's preferred medium for expression. All previous holy apparitions, whether in ice crystals in the supermarket freezer compartment or the vomits on the sidewalk, merely prepared the way for the one true pizza.

Pizza continues the Greek tradition of using bread as a plate. With this background rather than the glitz of the Pizza Huts of Jesus's more worldly rivals, Italians long considered the humble pizza to be a peasant's meal. Whether or not He Himself needed a plate for His fish when He was far from upper rooms and such, did not Jesus come for the peasants, the poor, the huddled masses, etc.? What better parchment than pizza on which to show His promise of salvation?

Ever since Jesus rose on the third (sort of) day, people should have realised that unleavened bread was not the answer. Risen dough for the risen Lord! The Biblical rationale for leavened bread involved the Jews wishing to be prepared. There was no time to make pizza. However, we now realise that real relationships, with man and God, are built from careful tending, kneading, and nurturing.

Much of the history of the Church remains inextricable from events in Italy. It has long been this way. The reasons for this should be abundantly clear.

Given the richness of the Vatican archive of pizza resources, it would have been a shame if these materials had been destroyed. The value of these religious and political tomes was clear at the time as well. Despite attempts to move the papacy from Rome, it remained in Italy. Of course, there was a price to be paid for this. Many of the faithful were lost in schism, and we can only hope that someday they will be united once again.

Over the years, the finer arts of pizza-making were carefully passed on by generations of clerics, in hopes that one day the truest pizza would be made. Although the pizza is probably to be created by human hands, these hands will be doing inspired work. This will not be a pie made by man alone.

As a more mechanistic world view came into favour, the meticulous balance of pizza was not forgotten, although some forgot the holy mission of the food, even as they made great things with pizza-shaped gears.

Predictably, there are pizza factions today. Some hold out for the Margherita pizza, named for the pizza baked for Italy's King Umberto I and Queen Margherita in 1889. Although the pizza to be found by our project may well be in this classic mozzarella and basil fashion, it could equally well not be so highly esteemed a pizza. Returning to the roots of the Gospels, we are reminded of the spirit of ecumenism. Let pizza not divide men. May it unite them as they break pizza together with the mysteries of the universe laid open before them.

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