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The three times I was in the physical vicinity of
the Pope are all indelibly marked in my psyche. I never got closer than twenty
or thirty yards to him, and even then he was slowly passing by in the Popemobile.
Each time; in New Orleans in 1987, in Denver in 1994, and in Rome in 2001, I
literally could feel within me that I was in the presence of a holy man. In New
Orleans it was a thrill to watch my high school band-a band I used to play
in-perform for His Holiness. It was an especially moving time for African
American Catholics when the Pope met with a special delegation in an historic
gathering, and when Xavier University was chosen to be the site where he
addressed all Catholic Colleges and Universities in the United States. As an
aside, this Pope, having visited Africa more than any other Pope in history has
a special love for people of African descent, which found expression in his
Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in Africa.
In Denver for World Youth Day I can remember the
excitement as four marine helicopters flew over Mile High Stadium at fifteen
minute intervals. Each time the crowd anticipated the arrival of the Pope. Each
time, lots of bishops, no Pope. Finally the fifth copter came and this time it
seemed that everyone knew that the Pope was inside and what an explosion of
excitement and joy filled that football stadium! The night we spent in Cherry
Creek State Park was like a visit with a grandfather who didn't want to leave
his little ones, the young people who loved this elderly gentleman so dearly and
flocked to him as they might to a pop culture icon. But what a different message
they got when they went to see the Pope! His attendants must have been a bit
sleepy that evening and wanted to go in, but jubilant adolescent chants of "John
Paul Two, We love you!" were repeatedly met with a sonorous, heavily
Polish-accented, "John Paul Two, He Loves YOU!!!" The Papal attendants finally
got their way and took the Pope in for the night.
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