Viva il Papa!

       Today, I saw the Pope. Even as I type that within this Blog post, I cannot believe it. It was so surreal even while it was happening. We literally were ten rows away from him, my iPhone pictures do NOT do justice to how clearly we could see Pope Benedict XVI. Adrian got some great pictures though so I will share some of those as well.
      St. John's gave us all tickets and anyone that wanted to go was aloud to. Adrian, Nora, Anthony, Ricardo, Mary and myself obviously jumped right on that opportunity. In fact, Adrian, Ricardo and Anthony's professor rescheduled class so that they could go. It was pouring rain outside and we were all really afraid we wouldn't get a good look at the Pope. The blessing was supposed to be held right in the middle of St. Peter's Square, but due to the rain was moved into a smaller building right next to St. Peter's Square. I honestly think it was meant to be, we had seats so close to the front of the stage that I feel like I could touch the Pope.

        I had expected to see mass take place, but in fact it was a blessing for the various groups of people that attended. Not to sound cheesy, but it was so cool! We got to the Vatican around 9am and after going through a lot of security, getting our tickets checked and getting our seats we had to wait about another hour for the Pope to come on. The room we were in (it was sort of like an Auditorium) was surprisingly not fully packed. There was probably about eight-hundred people inside and those people were literally from EVERYWHERE. I started taking notes on all of the places people were saying they were from; Argentina, Columbia, Mexico, Germany, France, United States, Italy, Brazil, Turkey, Venezuela, Loyola University and St. John's University. There were also various seminarians and Army Chaplin as well.
    When the Pope came out I really wasn't sure how everyone was going to react. I assumed everyone would be silent, but I was wrong. The whole entire crowd stood up and started going crazy. People were cheering, yelling in their own languages, waving their countries flag, yelling things along the lines of "Viva la Papa!"(long live the Pope in Spanish) or "Viva il Papa!" (long live the Pope in Italian). People were singing songs and dancing. The Pope really seemed so eloquent. He also seemed really friendly. He was waving and smiling the whole time, he actually seemed to be excited. Not the man so many Television shows and pictures try to portray him as. He seemed nice.
      No matter what you believe in (some of my friends there today are not Catholic) we all found it mind blowing. He waved and smiled, even chuckled a little. We were close enough to see him clearly, but not close enough to see his facial expressions. A huge television to the right of us was zoomed in on his face. He seemed old and definitely frail, but no doubt he was in great spirits. He was surrounded by Cardinals and Bishops. A good forty or so priests sat in the first few rows closest to the Pope. To the right of the Pope was another three or four rows of Cardinals, they were the ones that would later read the blessings.
     The Pope sat in the center in a large chair. He had two Priests (I am not sure if they are Cardinals or what) on both sides of him. The one on his direct right was the one handing him the papers that had the various blessings in various languages on them. There was security all around, they looked exactly like the secret service and the Swiss Guards were everywhere too.

      

     The event was televised (I saw Adrian on the big screen!) and I found it funny that even the camera men were in full suits. The service itself lasted about an hour from 10:30am to 11:30am. The Pope started off by speaking for awhile in Italian. After that we caught on to the fact he was doing a blessing in each language and acknowledging the various groups of people there. A Priest (once again not sure if a Cardinal or Bishop) would stand up next to the Pope and speak in his own language, introducing the blessing the Pope was about to give. The Pope gave a blessing in SEVEN different languages and acknowledged every group of persons from all over the world. His blessing in English was excellent. His blessing was geared to those who had family members or friends that are sick. I took a video of it and tried for hours to get it to upload on here (thats why it took me so long to post this!!) but I was unsuccessful. If anyone is interested in seeing the Pope give the blessing in English I would be more then happy to send it to you in an email.

      He also did a blessing in Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Turkish, and Spanish. When he acknowledged St. John's University he said, "St. John's University, United States, Queens, New York." We all stood up and went crazy, yelling and screaming. The Pope chuckled and waved at us. 

      My favorite part of the event, not including the blessing in English, was the blessing in Spanish. At the end of the blessing the Pope looked up from the piece of paper he was reading, had a huge smile and said so clearly, "MUCHAS GRACIAS!" It was SO cute and SO funny, we all started to applaud. All of the people that were there to hear the Pope speak in Spanish went wild and stood up and applauded even louder. It was really great to see. 

       Before I knew it the hour was up and it was time for us to go. The various Priests and people in the first four or so rows were blocked off and able to go up and speak with the Pope. Adrian took this great picture.

     No matter what your beliefs are on the Catholic Church or religion in general there is no denying that seeing the Pope up close is amazing. For my final project tomorrow for Theology of the Marketplace I had to do a paper and powerpoint on Pope Benedict XV (15th) the Pope during WWI. I have really enjoyed learning about Pope Benedict XV and his role in creating peace for those affected by WWI and healing those in the aftermath. In the article I had to read it explained, the Pope's job is to be a spiritual leader first and foremost and to instill peace in all of his people. Pope Benedict XV greatly struggled with being the leader for various countries during the time of fratricidal war. All of Europe and the United States was looking for the Pope to lead them, yet they were all at war with each other. Today as I was finishing up my project, and after seeing Benedict XVI (16th) this morning I sort of put together why he chose the name he did. 

     Pope Benedict XV's job was to unite the world during an extremely difficult and trying time. Pope Benedict XVI has a similar job as our own nation and nations of the world face many new social and economic issues. His job is to spiritually lead and it makes sense why he wanted to continue that of Pope Benedict XV.

    I did have some internal conflict today. As a feminist I really struggled with some of the sights I witnessed. Seeing four rows filled of male priests in the front of the building, three rows of male priests on the stage, male security guards, male camera men, male swiss guards and even only male ushers I couldn't help but feel frustrated. I do not want to comment to much on this matter, because I had such a unique and once in a life time experience today and do not want to ruin it with a feminist rant, but I cannot go without saying... It still did hurt me. To think about all the amazing women I have encountered over the years that could be amazing spiritual leaders on a greater level then they are offered and are instead denied that which men are not, saddens me. I am really not sure why more women are not frustrated by this and the fact that we are blatantly excluded and ignored from such processes, but I believe that is another matter for another day. 

    Overall, my experience today at the Vatican was wonderful and I feel so blessed that St. John's and my family provided me with this opportunity. I go to the best school in the world. 

   We decided today we would do our Vatican official tour this weekend because we are going to be staying in Rome (we have traveled every weekend since we got here). We got lunch at a little restaurant by the Vatican called Trattoria Ciao Vatican. It was surprisingly fairly priced, took our meal tickets and the food ended up being great!!! I got just plain pasta with red sauce and chili...

     While inside we learned that the place was actually closed! They do only "limited" business because it is not the tourist season. Our waiter was speaking to us in Italian (we all were staring at him like idiots) and he looked at Adrian and said "Do you speak Spanish?" "Si" Adrian responded and they had a full blown conversation from there. He explained a lot of the restaurants do just limited business during the off tourist season and instead do repairs and fix up their restaurant during this time. Fortunately for us, they wanted our business today. He asked Adrian where he was from and in return Adrian asked him. He was Italian born, but his mother was from Santa Maria. Adrian wasn't sure where that was exactly, but he said he believes it is a Spanish speaking Island. 

    After lunch Nora and I went back to the room and took a quick nap before I began to tackle my mounds of homework. As I said earlier, my final project is tomorrow (YIKES!) It is getting very late here and my powerpoint is SO close to being finished. My grade for Theology of the Marketplace depends on this...AH! Wish me luck!

    I hope you enjoyed my post about the Pope. Today was really a once in a life time opportunity that I will remember for the rest of my life. As usual, thanks for reading! Come back soon :) I always have lots to say!

XOXO Shann