New Year’s Papal Mass

As promised, I wanted to give at least a short description of mass at the St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.  The day started out early, especially given our late night New Year’s Eve celebrating, but hey, seeing the Pope is probably a once in a lifetime event.  We met up with our trip coordinator who had valiantly arisen even earlier to get a good spot in line.  She was up near the front when we arrived around 7:45.  The plaza itself is breathtaking, and was even more stunning with the sunrise lighting it up.  When the security gates were opened to start letting people in, nuns and others were witnessed running full speed past people in order to get the best seats.  Jokes were exchanged about how this was the most excited to attend mass people had seen others in a long time.   Upon entering the Basilica, we secured excellent seats right next to the walkway where the Pope and others would be passing.  After securing the seats, we had plenty of time to look around and marvel at the exquisite detail and ornateness of the Basilica, as well as the sheer grandeur of it.  The Basilica is approximately two football fields long, and features beautiful seeming paintings of various biblical scenes, which we later learned are all actually incredibly detailed mosaics.  Waiting for the Pope to enter felt to me like waiting for a bride to enter at a very important wedding.  The crowd was like a giant sea of paparazzi–cameras, ipads, phones, etc. were everywhere!  I got a great photo when he exited, which I have included.  The ceremony itself was very long, and as it was in Latin, difficult to stay attentive.  Nevertheless, the experience was memorable and awe-inspiring.  Afterward, we listened to the Pope’s customary address from the window of the Papal apartments out in the square which was filled with thousands of people.  As I do not speak Italian, I did not follow most of the speech, but know that he spoke about the importance of “fraternite” (brotherhood) in this trying time in the world.  Of all the world events of this past year, I think one of the most hopeful and positive has been the work of this new Pope, so it was particularly special to have the opportunity to see him in person here in Rome.  Also, he has taken specific steps to show that the refugee situation is an important one to him, such as making his first visit outside of Vatican City to Lampedusa, the Italian island where near 300 refugees drowned last year in a shipwreck off the coast.  We also learned today that he visited the Centro Astalli organization’s shelter in the city, insisting on visiting during the breakfast peak hour when the most people are there, and personally embracing each individual in the line.  So not a bad start at all.  Stay tuned–more on the Centro Astalli visit today, and trip to the one women’s shelter in the city tomorrow morning.