Il Papa

"We got an audience with the Pope."  I must have said that 50 different times prior to leaving for our trip. What an unusual thing to say. And really, I had no idea what it meant other than the fact that we had the opportunity to be in the presence of our Pope - Il Papa.  It came to us much like the beauty of this whole trip, on a complete whim. I emailed a former local priest who is now a Bishop and asked if there was anything he could do to make our time at the Vatican "more special."  I received a call and then a confirmation email with the wonderful gift of our audience.  So... just what does "an audience with he Pope" mean?  Well it turns out it means you get a ticket (which I'm not 100% sure is necessary) to be among the tens of thousands of people who are drawn to The Holy See to hear the word of God and a reflection delivered by His Holiness and then receive the Papal Blessing.  As the beautiful nun at the US Office for the Bishops in Rome stated when we picked up our tickets, "it's like a big Papal pep rally." 

So, we were told in order to get a seat, be there by  by 7:30 a.m.  Of course, I woke at 6 am, flung open our windows and peeked down to St. Peters square and saw that people were already lining up! Groups with banners, flags and matching hats were gathering amid the 4 very loosely defined entrance points.  We rushed to ready ourselves and made it to the square a few minutes before 7 am.   The Charlie Brumaster in me made friends with our fellow line-goers. The Indonesian man next to me, after a brief exchange of 'where are you froms' asked me "So, what are we in line waiting for?"  He had no idea he was in line to see the big guy.  When he came to this realization, he rushed off to a vendor to buy a rosary to be blessed. He had no 'ticket' and I never saw him again, so I have no idea if he made it in.   

It turns out, how close you get to the physical presence of the Pope really depends on 2 things, how early you arrived at St Peters square and how pushy you are.  Italians (God love them) really have no sense of personal space or of how to perform the "get in line" function. It as though they decided collectively as a country, not to teach this to their children.  So, it was a case of may the best pusher win. And, luckily for us, my Charlie Brumaster socialism aquatinted us with a nice family from Tampa, Florida in "line" with us. The husband/father  worked in the "governmental defense" business and stood at about 6 foot 5 inches tall. Needless to say he was a big guy and we pushed through that crowd with the best of them and made it very close, only about 30 rows away from the front.  

As we waited for over 2 hours in our seats, the crowd filled in behind us. A sea of over 80,000 people all waiting their chance for their own Papal Audience.  And then suddenly, with no fanfare, no blare of trumpets, not even a stadium announcer with the voice of "Are you ready to rumble??" out came Il Papa, Pope Francis. Riding in his pope-mobile, wearing the biggest smile, waving, clasping hands, and kissing babies. He rode through the crowd for a half hour before he made it up to his altar. We caught a very close glimpse as he road by and you could feel the electricity of the crowd. It was a beautiful gift to be in His presence. He oozes humility and you just know he was definitely chosen, not by man, but by God.

I held my mother's rosary for a special blessing for her in particular. And when the Papal pep really was done, I smiled, took a deep breath, kissed my amazing husband and said, "Now that's what I call an audience."