Pope Francis waves while riding through St. Peter’s Square in this 2016 photo.
By Barb Arland-Fye
Editor
The popemobile made its way through a cobblestone corridor in St. Peter’s Square as I stood against a barricade just hoping to see the face of Pope Francis up close. I was among 52 pilgrims participating in The Catholic Messenger Pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi Aug. 30-Sept. 6, 2016 for the canonization of St. Teresa of Kolkata.
Father Marty Goetz, one of our diocesan pastors and the pilgrimage’s spiritual leader, had worked miracles with our tour company, Select International, to get our pilgrims into a general audience with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square.
To our good fortune, Pope Francis was holding an extra general audience each month on a Saturday during the Year of Mercy in 2016 and our pilgrimage coincided with one of those audiences, on Sept. 3! Enza Volpe, our pilgrimage group guide, advised us where to sit for the best opportunity to see the Holy Father without having to use binoculars.
Aiming my iPhone toward the popemobile to try to capture a photograph, I called out “Papa!” (pope in Italian), and it seemed as if he looked at me with a smile. Maybe he was smiling at someone else, or all of us in the crowd. I simply felt blessed to see the leader of our universal Catholic Church up close and personal.
It is one thing to view media coverage of Pope Francis kissing babies and caressing the cheeks of older folks and people with physical or developmental disabilities. However, to witness those tender gestures in person leaves an indelible impression.
With the passing of Pope Francis on Monday, April 21, I have been reflecting on that pilgrimage, which remains one of the highlights of my journalism career and life. (We also passed through the Holy Doors of the four major papal basilicas in Rome, visited the catacombs, Assisi and other places during our pilgrimage.)
“It was incredible to see the leader of our Catholic Church so close up,” one of our pilgrims, Ken Tisinger, told me at the time. His wife, Chae, said she had tears in her eyes. She never imagined she would see Pope Francis within a few feet of her. “It filled my heart to see him,” she told me.
Pope Francis is “the most powerful man in the world and he made eye contact with me,” another pilgrim, Paula Logan, told me. “He’s mine. He’s our pope.” She and pilgrim Jane Tadelski said they took a picture of themselves after the Holy Father passed by. They deleted that photo because they were sobbing hysterically. Like me, they watched Pope Francis smile so warmly and kiss a baby who had been lifted up to him on the other side of the cobblestone corridor from us. “I didn’t think I’d live long enough to see him,” Jane said, getting choked up. “My dad was a Catholic his whole life. He would have loved to see Pope Francis. To be within 3 feet of him was unreal.”
“It was awesome to be that close and to see that smile and to see him blessing that baby right in front of us,” pilgrim Ann Fisher told me. “You could feel his enthusiasm in the crowd around him,” her husband, Mike, said.
“My impression was, how well loved he is,” observed pilgrim Ellora Atkinson. “It wasn’t just me; it was the collective love of the Italians and people from all over the world.”
(Contact Editor Barb Arland-Fye at arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org)
