Musings, amusing or otherwise: GENERAL AUDIENCE WITH POPE FRANCIS

Wednesday 9 October 2013

GENERAL AUDIENCE WITH POPE FRANCIS

Any event involving the Pope is going to be an exercise in patience and crowd control. I experienced this in 1987 when Pope John Paul II visited San Francisco, and again in 2002 at Toronto for John Paul’s final World Youth Day. And now, here I am at the Vatican with over 70,000 other people at St. Peter’s Square, waiting patiently for an audience with the new Pope Francis. This is very exciting and one can feel the electricity in the air.

Our group left the hotel early at 7:00am to get good seats in the Square. At least we thought it was early. By the time we arrived at St. Peter’s half an hour later, the crush of people was overwhelming. All thoughts of good seating went out the window as we stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a sea of humanity for what seemed like an eternity. The line was not moving at all, and I was starting to get claustrophobic. So I pulled out my Rosary and prayed silently through two sets of mysteries (the Joyful and the Luminous) before we finally cleared the security checkpoint.

We hurried quickly through the back section of the Square and my heart sank with the realization that we might be on our feet for four hours. There were no chairs here in what was obviously a standing-room-only section. But then, we looked ahead and saw two of our friends, Bill and Ann Christman, waving from the top of plastic chairs in the middle section. Yay! We ran over, happily took our seats and settled in for the long wait. (I joked with Bill and Ann later that they were obviously experienced in finding good seats at festival rock concerts!)

The time was now 8:00am and the Papal Audience was scheduled to begin at 10:30. It started raining, of course, and out came the umbrellas. I’m an Oregonian so I don’t do umbrellas. I just put on my woolie hat and my rainproof windbreaker and sat out the precipitation. I had been waking up at 4:00am every day of our trip, so I easily fell into a deep nap, rain and all.

When I awoke 20 minutes later, a warm shining sun nudged us into removing our coats. The empty reserved chairs in front of us were filling up with a very large and loud group. Based on their red and white flags, I surmised they were from Malta, an island nation on the Mediterranean, south of Italy.

Suddenly, an emcee’s voice resounded over the loud speakers. In Italian, he was introducing the various groups of pilgrims, who each cheered loudly and waved their flags when they heard their names. It was not a bad way to keep the crowd occupied during the long wait. When an English-speaking emcee took the microphone, our group sat up in anticipation as he announced groups from Britain and Australia and the United States. After several minutes, we were disappointed when the Italian emcee returned. Our name was not announced but we cheered anyway.

I looked at my watch and it was 10:00. The entire crowd erupted into a loud cheer as people stood on their feet. The big-screen TV monitors revealed the reason: Pope Francis had arrived! There he was, standing in his open-air Popemobile as it drove slowly through the Square. He was smiling broadly as he blessed the crowd, reaching out to shake hands and kissing babies who were brought up to him. The Holy Father’s magnetism was electrifying and not even dampened by the pouring rain. Our cameras were snapping away and a few of us got some terrific shots as he drove past us. Around 10:30, the Popemobile arrived in front of the basilica and Pope Francis took his seat on a platform underneath a canopy.

By its very nature as a multi-lingual event, a General Audience of the Pope follows a very structured format. After an opening prayer, a reading from Scripture is proclaimed — today from the Gospel of John, chapter 17: Christ’s prayer for unity. The Holy Father then shares his reflections on this Scripture passage in Italian. He is followed by several cardinals representing several cultural groups as they speak in Arabic, Croatian, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. Each cardinal thanks the Holy Father in the name of his cultural group, then gives a summary of the Pope’s talk in his group’s language. That is followed by brief remarks from Pope Francis geared specifically to each group, who hear a translation afterward by their cardinal. Because of the many languages involved, it takes some time for this process to unfold. After the final group has been addressed, we all stand and join the Holy Father in singing the Lord’s Prayer in Latin. He then concludes the General Audience by giving us his Apostolic Blessing.

This structure sounds very formal on paper but, as can be seen from the video below, Pope Francis often put his paper down and spoke to us from his heart. Today his message centered on Unity with Christ, and how the rich diversity of the Church is a true blessing from God. “Our differences make the Church beautiful,” said the Holy Father.

Our audience with Pope Francis was a shared experience that we will treasure always. Here are some links to his prepared text, plus a terrific video with English subtitles.

Click here for official English text of the Pope's remarks from our General Audience (Vatican website).