I admit I made a mistake. I was taking a distinctly Italian approach to the prospect of attending the first Angelus Address by Pope Francis.
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| Huge crowd overflows St. Peter's Square as Pope Francis delivers blessing during first Angelus at Vatican CNS photo |
It is a Roman tradition that the pope prays the Angelus and speaks to pilgrims and passersby every Sunday at noon from the window of his apartments. There is always a papal blessing as well, and on a sunny day, many can come to the square for a 15-minute encounter with the pope, even if he is only a tiny white figure at a great distance.
But the electric atmosphere around Pope Francis should have warned me that if I wanted to get into the square to see him at all, I should get there at least two hours early, if not more.
Instead, I strolled over at 11:30, figuring I'd make a quick visit before I joined the rest of Rome in heading home for lunch.
Big mistake.
The first hint was one could see a long stream of people heading in the wrong direction from the square down a side street near the Vatican. What are you doing? I asked. A kind woman pointed out that they had to enter the main boulevard to St. Peter's Square far down toward the river. The traffic authorities were making sure that all the side streets and alleys were blocked off. Once I entered Via della Conciliazione, I saw that my cause was hopeless. There were easily 100,000 people, maybe more.
Like any good Italian, I wriggled and crept my way forward, inching through the press of humanity that caused at least a few less hardy souls to have panic attacks and swim for the sidelines.
Finally, at the beginning of Piazza Pio XII, the smaller square in front of St. Peter's Square where one can usually buy a newspaper or find a taxi, I stopped. There was no movement. I could not see the pope. I could barely hear the pope. French and American, Chilean and of course Argentine flags waved in the breeze, but I was going nowhere.
I tried to call up Vatican Radio, but of course all the cell towers were overloaded, so there was no contact with the outside world. I was surrounded by Polish priests and Italian families, Americans and French and Spanish-speakers from all over the world. At one point, as people began to wiggle toward the exit and away from St. Peter's, a young Chilean woman identified the president of Chile nearby who was also retreating. He had been no more successful than me in seeing Pope Francis.
Yet rather than feeling defeated, I felt invigorated. What a spectacular gathering of people, all to hear our pope. How this must chill the blood of those who feel our Church has nothing to offer, no one to represent it in modernity's many battlefields. Today was a reminder that we are not a perfect Church, certainly, but we remain amazing. For 2,000 years and counting, the Church continues to attract those who seek, in the pope's words, truth, beauty and goodness. Even on a cold Sunday afternoon in Rome.
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ Our Lord.
Greg Erlandson is OSV president and publisher.
Greg Erlandson is OSV president and publisher.
