The highlight of our pilgrimage to Italy/Vatican City was getting to talk to Pope Francis!
I was hoping Jack would get blessed like the others but had no idea our whole family would get to meet the Pope face to face!
The Wednesday Audience was in Paul VI Hall and the guards selected our family (mostly due to Jack) and a few other parents with babies to sit up front with the newly married couples waiting to be blessed.
At the end of the audience the Pope greeted many guests. Then he made his way to our section, where we were sitting in the front row. At this time we were standing along the front railing. When he came to us he blessed each of our kids, laying his hand on their heads. Then he came back to us & he counted the kids in Italian, “Uno due tre quattro cinque!” In English, I told him we’d love to have more kids and I just kept saying, “We love you pope Francis!”
I was struck by his humanity as I looked at him, seeing he’s, in one sense, just an old, holy man — and at the same time realizing he’s the Vicar of Christ. The quotes from the Magnificat magazine on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, I found very fitting as I reflected on being in Rome and meeting Pope Francis:
“Perhaps it would be a good thing if every Christian, certainly if every priest, could dream once in his life that he were pope, and wake from that nightmare in a sweat of agony” (Monsignor Ronald Knox).
“How blessed is the Church of Rome, on which the Apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with their blood!” (Tertullian).
So thankful for this gift — it was so surreal and very special for our family’s last (at least for the foreseeable future) time there!
Ps, our picture was used in the summary of the Pope’s remarks at the audience!
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