Favela da Rocinha
Pope Francis arrived in Rio! The first Pope from the Americas crossed the Atlantic and arrived in the Americas. And I already saw him! I do not know how to start! Maybe I should start from the beginning.
This morning I received a message that the simultaneous translation training would be in the afternoon (by now you realized that simultaneous translation is the volunteer task that requires more training in WYD). So, I finally had a free morning. One of the brothers of my community, the famous Br Marco Aurelio dos Santos, invited me to go the beach. We went to Ipanema Beach (the same beach of the song “Garota de Ipanema”…). It is really a precious location made by God. From there you can see the mountains and their tropical jungle. The ocean was lightly blue. On the way back we took a bus that went through Rocinha, one of the biggest favelas of Rio with 80,000 habitants. Rocinha is a conglomeration of houses built on a mountain. It is amazing how they have everything there: restaurants, pharmacies, meat shops, body shops, and even wifi. The streets are very narrow and windy, and I was amazed on how buses are able to go through there. I really admire these people; it is not easy to live there. Rio is full of these contrasts: natural beauty and the chaos of the concrete jungle, amazing buildings and structures and the poverty of the favelas, business of downtown and the laid back attitude of the beach.
Ipanema Beach
At noon I received an official message from the Volunteer Department saying that the Pope would celebrate Mass at the Cathedral at 6 pm. I was really excited and told several people. Later on we found out that was not the case; they had Mass there with an Argentinian Bishop and Argentinian pilgrims.
In the afternoon I went to downtown, to the Volunteer headquarters. On the way I could see thousands of pilgrims in the street, metro, bus stop, restaurants (these guys are making serious money here!). The young Catholics were present everywhere. Also I could see police officers everywhere. Thanks be to God the public authorities want to make sure the city is secure. I spent the afternoon going over the simultaneous translation; it seems that I will be translating just the Opening Mass with Archbishop Orani. Basically I will be translating everything with another translator and also doing commentaries during the event (like what you see when you watch the Vatican WebTV or EWTN). I am looking forward for it — please pray for me!
Picture of the Papa mobile from the window of the Volunteer Headquarters
We were following the events on TV and saw him arriving at the airport. The building where I was working is right in front of one of the main streets where the Pope would pass. It was tough to keep working knowing that the Pope was about to pass in front of our office. So, everyone went the windows, some people went down to the streets, others like me start to shred paper (so that we could throw out of the window when the Pope pass). The only person that persevered working was one of the German translators.
When the Pope got close to our block we could hear the crowd screaming pretty loud; it was really amazing. We were on the 17th floor of the building. We all got to the windows with flags of several countries (USA and Brazil were among them). Finally the Pope arrived in our street and it was a blast of joy. Everyone was so happy to see him, it was really a blessing. At one point his car stopped on our street and the security agents brought a child for a blessing and a kiss from the Pope. That was so nice. This is how I saw the Holy Father for the first time. Many of the people from the Volunteers office were expecting the arrival from the Pope. They have worked hard for this moment and finally it became true. Now we have the Vicar of Christ and the pilgrims together to pray and encounter Christ.
Br Antonio and the translation team right before the Pope arrived
On the way back home I saw something very sad that was very different from the joy I just witnessed. My bus went through a group of protesters, maybe 50 people. They were in front of a Catholic Church, using that holy place to push their agenda. They were very aggressive and disrespectful. The police was there and I pray this night they do not come to a fight. What a contrast: 1.5 million Catholics young people from all over the World united in Christ with a message of hope, peace and joy, and 50 young people with a message of violence and anarchy. Let us pray that the example of the WYD pilgrims change their hearts too!
