This past week I have been with a group of American pilgrims here in Rome for John Paul II’s beatification. Most of it was the same as any other pilgrimage but starting Saturday, everything
got intense. After mass in the Catacombs, we got back home for a late lunch. After lunch, Br John Yep got everyone together to explain the next item on the schedule. I was expecting a mini-retreat to prepare and an early night’s sleep – but it was leaving for St Peter’s in half an hour to be at the front of the line. About 2/3 of the boys and dads wanted to go and the others wanted to leave at 5am the next morning with Fr Gregory Usselmann and me.
The line had begun at the end of Via della Conciliazione which is that road that leads straight up to St Peter’s Square (the most common shot of St Peter’s is from the street). I called Br John at 7 to see how it was going and he reported 4,000 people behind him, he texted us at 11pm that there were 12,000 and then we didn’t hear from him again till after the beatification. I will try to reconstruct the next hours from the testimonies of various members of this crew.
At 1am, the crowd was tight, the temporary barrier was pulled back, thousands rushed down
the street, everyone sprinted, the group broke into 4, and only minutes before the beatification was reunited. At the gates to St Peter’s Square, the river of humanity came to a grinding halt; they sat there and waited for 5 hours – pushing, shoving, thrusting, driving, crowding, nudging, jostling, pressing, shifting, shunting, turning, squeezing, cramming, jamming, crushing, tensing,
scrunching, sealing, stuffing, constricting – without any more space, the final yards became a human sardine can.
Finally at 6am they opened the square and they all moved in and almost miraculously found
each other. In the end they were all about 5 feet from the closest spots allowed without special tickets (priests and dignitaries). As he processed out, the Pope passed right in front of them.
My party “slept in” till 4am and was on the train with breakfast a little after 5am but
that only got us about a block from the end of Via della Consiliazione which means there were about 500,000 people in front of us. Can you name one other event that if you arrive 4.5 hours
beforehand you get a spot half a mile away because 500,000 people were already camped out?
The beatification was absolutely amazing, but most of it you can read on all the Catholic websites. For me it was a personal experience going back to the help he gave me in my own vocation (which I posted here last week). I wanted to thank him for that and I think I was able to do it.
I really struck me when they unveiled the picture on the front of St Peter’s; even from
my half-mile distance it almost made me cry. Then at the end of the homily, Pope Benedict asked “Continue, we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God’s people. You often blessed us in this Square from the Apostolic Palace: Bless us, Holy Father!” which echoed his funeral homily five years ago, “We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the Father’s house, that he sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father.”
I admire the devotion these young men had to wait in line 18 hours with little food and
in such tough conditions to be so close to JP2 as he was beatified. We now have one more official intercessor in heaven, a man worthy of such dedication. How much we could change the world if we each gave just a little of this dedication everyday to our spiritual life.
Figures! Yeps are always up front! We have attended many papal events with them! This would have been the BEST! Good move Br. John!
Our son, Fr Benjamin Cieply joined us in Rome and we were able to make it into St. Peter’s Square for the Mass….. Yes, we spent the night by the entry gate, but not quite as close as Br John and his group. Our time on the Via della Conciliazione was amazing – saying the rosary with each decade being recited in a different language, singing great and holy songs all through the night with groups from Barcelona, France, and a group of lovely Sisters, Novices,& Postulants from Poland! Just 2 hrs before being admitted for the Beatification Mass we were squeezed by the crowd close to a young man from the States who had just come into the Church at the Easter Vigil…he was happy to talk with Fr Benjamin and so excited to be in Rome for this event and of course, we were too –our presence at there at St. Peter’s Square to testify to the holiness of John Paul II and to thank him for his great love, example, and sacrifice for all of us!
“I have searched for you , now you have come to me. I thank you for this.”
~Blessed John Paul II