The Pope's journey to my university
We got to Catholic at about 3:20 pm, 50 minutes after they opened the doors, and had to stand in line. A lot more people came than I expected, about 4000. I didn't realize that the school had given out so many tickets. Originally they were only giving out tickets to faculty (who could take up to five each), but later they started giving them to students as well. In addition to the people you see here, a very large number of people were on Massachusetts Ave. to watch the popemobile drive by.
There was plenty of pope merchandise to be had, but the polo shirt I wanted was $35! There were also street vendors selling cheaper, unofficial merchandise, including little Vatican flags. The flagpoles, however, had to removed and discarded before anyone was allowed on campus. I guess you could poke someone with them! Security was quite rigorous at the school, being handled by the D.C. police and the Secret Service.
The media were present in abundance. CNN had the best spot with a cameraman right next to the Basilica door. Their excellent footage of the pope arriving at the Basilica is available on www.cnn.com/video.
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where Vespers with the American bishops took place, had invited a number of guests, including a whole slough of Missionaries of Charity (the religious order founded by Teresa of Calcutta).
Hey! Who are those people on the roof of the seminary? :-)
A small part of the crowd.
The bishops arrive! The ones wearing red are cardinals, like the one to the left talking on his cellphone.
Cameras were a-plenty when the pope arrived, which made the already poor visibility even worse.
I think that this was one of the better pictures I took and it was totally by accident. The pope's traditional red leather shoes have been drawing attention ever since he ascended to the chair of Peter, so much so that last year Esquire Magazine declared him "Accessorizer of the Year." They are only one element of a number of traditional pontifical fashions that His Holiness has restored.
I did not have good success with pictures on Wednesday, so this was the best I got of the pope. . . and it's his back. The man to his left is Monseigneur Walter R. Rossi, the Basilica's rector (Latin for ruler). The man to his right is the Most Rev. Donald W. Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington. Last year I attended an excellent lecture that he gave at our school on the role of religion in the politics of a pluralistic society. (The guy behind them is doubtlessly a Secret Service agent).
Today (Thursday) the Holy Father delivered a lecture on Catholic education at our school. We were able to watch the lecture on the Jumbotron that had been set up. The man addressing the pope is the Very Rev. David M. O’Connell, CM, the president of Catholic University.
In his lecture the Holy Father addressed the Catholic identity of Catholic schools and universities. There are many fine secular schools and universities, he noted, and if Catholic schools and universities are no different from them, what is the point of the Church expending its resources on them? He also outlined some principles of Catholic education, such as the fundamental compatibility of faith and reason, the simultaneous need for academic freedom and fidelity to Catholic doctrine, the need for Catholic educators to be role models in faith, and the importance of prayer, charity, and Scripture in Catholic education, among other things. As someone who plans to be a Catholic theology professor, God willing, I took serious note of the pope's lecture, who was once himself a Catholic theology professor!
Invited to the lecture were the American bishops as well as their heads of education and other important Catholic educators from around the nation. I saw my former professor, Fr. Joseph A. Komonchak, there, who was perhaps invited because he is an expert on Joseph Ratzinger (i.e. the pope) and even teaches a doctoral seminar on him, the Dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies (my school) and the Dean of the School of Nursing (where I'm a Graduate Assistant).
His Holiness! Notice the Archbishop of Washington behind him and the university's president to his left.
What these pictures do not convey is the incredible roar that the student body produced. The excitement level was very high, to make an understatement.
The pope in his famous popemobile. I was very glad that he rolled the window down and stayed for a bit longer because his visits have been extremely short, only a few seconds. This was somewhat disappointing given that his predecessor, when he visited in 1979, actually gave a short speech to the school on the steps of the Basilica (they showed the footage before the pope arrived).
A close-up of His Holiness (notice Archbishop Wuerl grinning in the popemobile with him). I would estimate that my wife and I spent about sixteen hours waiting for the pope yesterday and today, and we only got to see him for about two minutes. And it was clearly, definitely worth it. Having the pope come to your school is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Fortunately there was a lot of interesting things to see and do while we waited (for instance, they showed the papal mass and the movie Sister Act on the Jumbotron while we waited today!), and I managed to get a tiny bit of homework done.
There is no one in the world quite like the Bishop of Rome. If the president came to my school, that would be a big deal, too, but not this big. If Brad Pit came to my school, that would be a big deal, too, but not nearly this big. The power of politics and of the media pale in comparison to the power of religion. The closest parallel I can think of is the Dalai Lama, but he is not nearly as big of a deal to Westerners as the pope, obviously.
x-posted: catholicism and my personal LJ