MY CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH POPE JOHN-PAUL II

MY CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH POPE JOHN-PAUL II
(Excerpts from my Pilgrimage Diary: Oct.1-26, 1995)

Rome, in spite of the Arab pickpockets and the Gypsy snatchers was also home of the Pope and an audience with the Pope was a most romantically Divine encounter.

October 25, 1995: We arrived at the St. Peter’s Square at 8:30 a.m. but allowed only to enter after another half hour. There was a very big crowd and to keep everything in order needed a lot of security people – the Swiss guards in their colorful uniform.

We were assigned on the twenty second row in front of the canopy where the Pope was going to sit. Disabled persons were placed on the right side of the canopy. We were surrounded by pilgrims coming from all corners of the world: British, Portuguese, Indonesians, Guatemalans, Polish, American Indians and many others waving their own banners.

With all those pilgrims coming from everywhere, all bringing love and expressing it in a hundred different ways, the Vicar of Christ must be romantically overwhelmed. He moved around riding on His Pope mobile.

Our small group, fourteen in all, expressed our love by shouting at the top of our voices: “John-Paul Two, we love you… John-Paul Two, we love you…Philippines!”At the same time each of us was waving a tiny Filipino flag. I saw the Pope looked at us for a short while but that short while was full of heavenly bliss that culminated our Holy Pilgrimage.