We picked up our tickets Tuesday evening from the Visitor's Office in the Pontifical North American College, and received a short overview of how the next day would work. Bring our tickets and our marriage certificate, and we would be ushered to the newly-wed section to listen to the Papal address. Most visitor's for the address had to sit or stand in St. Peter's Square, but as newly-weds Jessie and I were offered seating on the plaza near the main stage. Also, as the audience began at 10 with the Pope's ride through the square on his Pope-mobile, most visitor's were advised to arrive around 7 am, while Jessie and I were advised 9 am (though the earlier the better, of course), since our seats were reserved. We stayed in the office for a great talk on the structure of the readings in the Mass, which is a conversational dialogue between God and ourselves. Jessie and I couldn't have been more excited for the next day.
On a side note, Rome is crawling with peddlers. The majority of them are selling selfie-sticks (blech), and the vast majority of them don't understand the word "no." Let me warn you now, avoid eye contact, and above all avoid conversation with these peddlers. They are never interested in anything but money.
I tell you this because, on our way back to our airbnb apartment on Tuesday evening, a peddler came up to us and tried to give Jessie roses. She of course refused, but he insisted, claiming they were gifts. He then asked us how long we had been together. Once he had us in conversation, the game was over. He gave Jessie a total of six roses, and after a short conversation proceeded to beg for money to pay for the roses he had "gifted" to us. We gave him our last fiver, saving enough money to buy our metro tickets home. I know, I know, it was stupid. But we decided Jessie could bring the roses along to the audience in the morning so it wouldn't be a total loss.
Anyway, the next morning we woke up around 6:30. I got barely a wink of sleep for one reason or another the entire night, and so was dead-tired. We got up, got dressed and ready, prepared our breakfast, and finally left the apartment about 7:30. We were golden. When we arrived at the metro station, however, we realized that we still had no cash left to buy our biglietti (tickets), and cards were not accepted. So we had to take a detour to an atm, which ultimately cost us about 40-45 minutes. But we were still doing ok on time.
Or so we hoped. The metro station in Rome at 8-10 in the morning is an utter nightmare. We took a train to Termini station, the center-point, for a transfer to the train that would take us to the stop for the Vatican. The station was packed. There were so many people trying to cram into the trains that we had to miss two trains and catch the third before there was even room for us. And the train was totally packed with people. There was literally no room to move, and one or two people even had to get off to allow the doors to close. This whole state of chaos cost us much more time than we were comfortable with. We ultimately arrived at the Vatican at 9:30, just in the nick of time.
Or not. We got through security, and had no idea where to go. We were told at the orientation that we would be escorted to our seats, but the only officials around were the Italian police, and they wouldn't talk to us. The most we could get out of any of them was that the Pope was already out, it was too late to get a seat, and we needed to stay in the square. But it was supposed to start at 10, we thought? Nope, the Pope had come out early, and no one would talk to us about finding our place. Finally, as he began his address, we realized it was too late. We couldn't sit in our reserved seats, and we wouldn't receive the Pope's blessing for our marriage. To say we were devastated is a terrible understatement. We cried together for a few minutes, trying to resign ourselves to just enjoying the Pope's address from afar. We sat down on the steps.
A few minutes later our luck changed. A young woman walked over to us, crouched down, and introduced herself as a student at the university nearby. She had noticed that we had been crying, and told us that there was still a possibilita to see the Pope. We needed to find a Vatican officer to help us, as they understood the importance of the Papal blessing and would be more willing to help in the way the Italian police simply weren't. She also suggested we write a note to the Pope with our address attached. This we did. She didn't speak much English, but she renewed our hopes and our search began anew.
We asked a few more police officers, but couldn't find any Vatican officers close enough to contact. Just as we were about to lose hope again, God sent another help. A middle-aged Italian man, in a red shirt with a woven fedora hat, noticed that we were holding our marriage certificate and yet were not with the newly-weds. Though he didn't speak English, we were able to discern the same basic advice - we needed to get through the crowd and flag down a Vatican guard. We kept trying, and he disappeared. He reappeared a few minutes later with new information - we needed to go around to the other side of the Square. We thanked him profusely, and began our trek. By now, the address was over, and the translated summaries had been read. But we finally found what we were looking for.
There was an alley-way leading up to the plaza with two guards, one in the iconic Vatican guard dress we had been looking for. We showed him the certificate, and he let us through! There were about five more similar passageways we had to pass through, but we finally and miraculously made it to the newly-wed section of the Papal address.
Having just come back from the edge of depression, we were feeling pretty good. The Pope was now walking amongst the people, and we moved down the stairs to the edge of the plaza with some of the crowd, just behind a move-able fence. Then God sent His third helper to us, probably getting both amused and annoyed at our incompetence. A woman noticed we were dressed as newly-weds, and told us there was another place we needed to be to receive the blessing, which she knew because her daughter and son-in-law were doing the same. We had simply figured the address and blessings were over (it was almost all in Italian, so we didn't know), and had followed the rest of the crowd to the fence. We didn't noticed that the newly-weds had gone in a different direction, towards the center of the plaza behind the stage.
By the time we got back to where we were supposed to be, the other newly-weds had passed through, and the way was closed off. We showed our marriage certificate to the guards again, (there were three this time, none of whom were Vatican guards O.o). Two of them looked it over and discussed it. One pointed at the date (technically, couples needed to be wed within two months of the audience, but we had been given tickets and had gotten this far anyway). The other closed the way and walked toward the center of the plaza. We learned from the other guards that he had left to ask someone whether we could be let in. He walked back, and motioned us through, telling us to hurry.
We lined up with the other couples, we on the far right-hand side, and we waited. A few minutes passed, and there he was. His Holiness Pope Francis was slowly making his way along the side fences, greeting people, kissing babies, accepting gifts, and giving blessings. He moved along very slowly, despite his age and the Italian heat of midday, giving his full attention to everyone he came across. When he made it back to the center of the plaza, we realized that he wasn't going to give a general blessing to all the newly-weds. He was meeting each couple individually.
Our anticipation grew with each passing couple. Before we had even met him, we had been touched by this man's sincerity, his grace, and the way in which he seemed to truly care for the flock he shepherds. He finally came upon us. Jessie took his hand and kissed it. I took his hand and kissed his ring. He blessed us, and I told him that Jessie was pregnant. His face lit up. He asked when the baby was due. He looked down and began the blessing, but looked up again to ask what the baby's name was. We told him we didn't know yet, since we don't know whether the baby is a boy or a girl. "Ah, depends, eh? On whether a man or woman?" "Yes, Father."
Jessie gave him the six flowers that had been forced upon us, wrapped in the note we had written and signed with our address just a little while earlier. Those flowers had given us so much grief. If we hadn't bought the flowers, we would have had money for the train, and we would have missed rush-hour, and we would have found the newly-wed section with ease. We would have sat through the Papal audience on a chair with a smile on our faces, rather than on the steps of St. Peter's Square with tears in our eyes. We also learned better to have faith. Faith that God is in control. As terribly incompetent as we were, God sent us as many helps along the way as we needed; God wanted us to have this blessing. And so we passed those flowers on as our gift to the Pope. The roses were not simply roses, but giving them to the Holy Father was like laying all our frustrations and all we had learned at the foot of the cross.
Before Pope Francis moved on to the final couple, he asked us to pray for him. What a humble man! He spoke softly and gently. And he spoke earnestly. We told him that we would of course pray for him, and asked that he do the same for us, to which he smiled. And then he moved on.
Pray for His Holiness Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ, the Visible Head of Christ's Church on Earth, and the Successor to St. Peter. We pray for his continued health and strength. We pray for his wisdom and inspiration, that he be filled with the Holy Spirit to guide the Catholic Church throughout the world. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen!
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| The pope goes by in the Pope Mobile |
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| The best I could do from afar |
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| The view from the newlywed section |
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| Jessie and the Roses |
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| Afterwards |
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| St. Peter's Basilica |
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| Blessing the Baby |
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| We're walking away in the background - this couple gave the Pope a new zucchetto and the Pope's face is pretty great. =) |
