Keeping Up With the Kissingers: When in Rome...Top 10!

1) Pope Francis blessed Francis and Ellie

Nothing could top these precious moments in our trip to Rome and Vatican City! We have to first thank so many of the incredible Franciscan University students for making this possible. The plan to get Francis blessed began a week earlier in the students' meeting on the trip when the Director of the study abroad program mapped out where the best spot was to see the Pope during the Wednesday Audience. He called it "Operation White Smoke," and the mission was to get Baby Francis - aka, "Pope bait" - blessed. In order to get this spot you needed to be the first ones through the security gate when it opened at 7:30am. In order to secure this spot students got in line as early as 1:30am!! Others made their way there at 2:30am, 5am, and 6am. We showed up at 7:05am and joined many others in the line. As the line started to move we could see our students get through security and take off sprinting for the coveted section. They then formed a line around perimeter so that all of us later arrivals to the line could enter their section. Amazing. At 9:20am, Francis and I got in position - front row right where the Pope was expected to first appear. At 9:29 we saw him get in the Pope Mobile. As everyone screamed and cheered his car entered St Peter's Square. As I held Francis out over the blockade, students held the Franciscan University banner, cheered, cried, and pointed at our son. A security guard quickly approached us. The Pope mobile stopped. And, the next part is a little blurry because I was shaking and crying, the security man took Baby Francis and handed him to Pope Francis! The Pope kissed him and blessed our son.

Our section went wild. After I took my blessed baby back from the security man, I regained a bit of my composer and locked eyes with Pope Francis. As his eyes met mine, he said something and I just said "thank you, thank you." He was smiling and nodding, he then continued on blessing us all. He went around the crowds for about 25 minutes blessing other babies and small children. He drove by us in the front row again. That's when I took a few pictures in my phone.

Then he went down the other side the students had staked out, where Brian was waiting with Ellie in hopes of her getting blessed by the Pope. But as everyone cheered she clung tighter to daddy. So no direct blessing that time around. Around 10am, Pope Francis began his prayer, speech, and blessing for the Audience. The theme of his speech was the family. You can read a summary here -- and see more photos of our son (here and here) who was apparently very photogenic that day! After the blessing, which extends to all our families, most of the crowd left as Pope Francis met with people up on the platform. A smaller group of us waited, hoping to see him up close again as he exited in the Pope Mobile. About an hour later he began his departure. The students still held their secured spot up front. Brian joined them along the front perimeter this time and held Ellie, who had watched students' video recordings of her brother being kissed by the Pope and decided she'd like that too. As Pope Francis approached our section he was waving and smiling. Brian held Ellie up. The security men didn't pick her up, but Pope Francis bent over and made the Sign of the Cross directly in front of Ellie. One of the students recorded the video of it on her phone! Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Ps, we also saw Fr. Dave, who married us, at the Audience. He used to seem pretty cool, before we met the Pope. Speaking of Fr Dave you should check out his new book and this cool FREE online series he's been working on.

2) Mass at St. Peter's Basilica (Altare della Cattedra)

The Audience with the Pope happened on our last full day in Rome (before heading to Assisi) so everything else that preceded that moment built our excitement from being in such holy, historic places. One of my favorite experiences on the trip was Mass at the altar behind the High Papal Altar in the center of St. Peter's Basilica. With one exception, all of our Masses were celebrated by our Franciscan TOR Friars and music by the University students. If you've been to a Mass at Franciscan University before then you know how amazing it is to be among all these young people, truly in love with Our Lord, so actively praising and adoring Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit. At a certain point during the Mass, as I stared up at Bernini's Holy Spirit window with my family next to me and the students all singing around me and Jesus on the altar in front of us, I felt so incredibly blessed.

Other highlights in St. Peter's Basilica included:

Altar over the tomb of St. Pope Pius X. I went to St. Pius elementary school for K-8 grade so it's incredible to see the incorrupt body of this holy man for which our school was named.

The Pieta

Altar over the tomb of St. Pope John Paul II

3) Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel

Brian watched the kids while I went on this tour. Our tour guide has been living in Rome for 8 years and has her masters in Theology from Notre Dame. She did an amazing job taking us through the museum. Unfortunately no pictures in the Sistine Chapel were allowed, but other highlights included:

Resurrected Jesus tapestry - wherever you stand in the room it seems like Jesus is looking at you

Raphael Rooms

The view of Vatican City exiting the museum

4) La Santa Scala, the Holy Stairs

These are the stairs Christ climbed to meet Pilate. They were brought to Rome from the Holy Land by St. Helen. The pilgrimage up the stairs can only be made on your knees. Brian and I went up the stairs on an afternoon when both kids were asleep, Ellie on Brian's back and Francis in my carrier. The extra weight of the kids made the climb a little more painful, but I knew it must have been nothing compared to what Jesus felt. A few days later in Assisi I was praying beneath a statue of the crucifixion and I looked up and saw Christ's knees, completely destroyed, knee caps split open...oh the agony He endured for our salvation.

5) Praying the Angelus with Pope Francis

On Sunday, our first full day in Rome, we all went to St. Peter's Square at noon to pray with the Pope. This was our first time seeing Pope Francis in person. There was a lot of cheering, crying, and rejoicing as we saw our Holy Father in the window up above us.

6) Catacombs of St. Callixtus

A short walk from our hotel took us to the outskirts of Rome to the catacombs. These catacombs are among the greatest and most important of Rome. They originated about the middle of the second century and are part of a cemetery complex that occupies an area of 90 acres, with a network of galleries about 12 miles long, in four levels, more than twenty meters deep. In it were buried dozens of martyrs, 16 popes and very many Christians. (Almost all of the known remains were removed and safely relocated to churches all over Rome) We saw the crypt where the Popes were buried referred to as "little Vatican." And we saw where St. Cecilia was buried. We prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet at one of the small altars. Sorry, no pictures allowed underground.

Ps, there was a cool playground on our walk there!

7) Mass at St. Mary Major

We went to Mass at all four of the major basilicas in Rome, St. Mary Major being one of them. Here we were also able to see the manger (feeding trough) where Jesus was placed at His birth.

8) Mass at St. Paul's Outside the Walls

We joined others for Mass in Italian. We saw the tomb of St. Paul and the chains he wore while imprisoned.

9) Mass at the Basilica of St. John Latern

Our Friars celebrated Mass on the main altar of the Basilica of St. John Lateran on our last full day in Rome. This is the Pope's church. Pope Francis celebrated the Mass of the Basilica's Feast Day, which was on Monday just two days before we had Mass there.