He’s the first Pope from the Americas. He’s the first Pope from the southern
hemisphere. He’s the first Jesuit to be
a Pope. And he’s the first Pope to have
studied and worked in the chemical engineering field. Whew. Heeee’s kind
of a big deal.
Papa Francesco was born Jorge Mario
Bergoglio on December 17th, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina to a family of Italian
immigrants. He earned a Chemical
technician’s diploma after attending Escuela Técnica Industrial
Hipólito Yrigoyen Secondary School, and he briefly worked as a test chemist in a food laboratory before
being called to become a Jesuit Priest in 1960.
Following the Jesuit mission of education, he taught literature and
psychology at a few different Argentinian high schools while finishing his own
education in theology. He was ordained
as a priest in 1969. From there, he went
on to become Auxiliary Bishop of Argentina in 1992, Archbishop of Buenos Aires
in 1998, Cardinal in 2001, President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference in
2005, and, finally, he was appointed the 266th Pope in 2013. And I got
to see him today!
I saw the Pope this past Sunday from
a distance, but today was a totally different story. Pope Francis passed within about ten feet of where I was standing in
Vatican Square!
 |
| Pope Francis blessing the crowd as he rode by our position on the square |
I woke up at 5:30 AM this morning,
and made it to the Vatican by 6:45 in order to get through security and secure
a seat as close as possible to the pavilion where the Pope would be speaking
from. My classmates and I were not able
to get front row seats, but we did arrive early enough to get seats along the
edge of the large central aisle, which the Pope would later ride through on the
Pope mobile. Prior to the Pope’s arrival
in the square, bishops started announcing visiting groups to the square. And, to my great surprise, the University of
Arkansas - we - were actually announced! To a crowd of thousands. In Vatican Square!
We cheered and cheered.
 |
| Early morning Selfie with the class (feat. Jacob) |
The Pope came riding in on the Pope
mobile around 9:30, and he was driven around the edges of the square
first. I watched his progression on one
of the big flat screen TVs that were positioned towards the front of the
square. He mostly stayed in his vehicle
and waved, but he did get out periodically to shake hands, bless children, and
greet the elderly. He came up our aisle
last.
 |
| Another up-close pic of the Pope. On the left side, one of the colorful Swiss Guards is just visible. |
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| Mid-morning class selfie. It got busy in a hurry! |
The audience started with a reading from the Gospel of St.
Luke. Various bishops welcomed the crowd
and did the reading in 8 different
languages! Italian, Spanish,
English, French, German, Portuguese, Arabic, and Polish were all spoken during
the program.
Following the reading,
Pope Francis gave a short sermon in Italian from his central location
underneath the white Papal pavilion. The
topic of the sermon was compassion, and the Pope was joined under the pavilion by a
group of African refugees - which I think added a lot of weight to his message.
Summaries of the Italian sermon were given in the eight
languages after the Pope was finished.
The Pope then blessed the crowd, friends and family of those present,
and any religious articles in the square.
The entire audience lasted about an hour.
 |
| View of the Papal pavilion from our aisle seats |
The Pope is an incredibly inspiring figure. His ability to touch the lives of so many
people from such a wide array of backgrounds – and to do so positively, through
a message of universal love and compassion – is simply amazing.
I don’t think I’ve ever been in a situation in my entire life
where English is not the first or the
second most popularly spoken language in any given crowd. Italian and Spanish were probably number one
and number two today, and yet they didn’t dominate by any means. Hearing each group cheer when they were
greeted in their own language was a beautiful thing.
Diversity is the name of the game today. Everyone is connected through the internet
and social media, and Pope Francis is well aware of it. I’d like to end this post with a series of two quotes from
Pope Francis’s twitter account – which he posted yesterday. In the spirit of working together in this
world, Pope Francis tweeted out:
“People are the primary artisans of their own development,
the first in charge!"
"We are all on a journey to the common house of heaven, where we will be able to admire with joyful wonder the mystery of the universe.”
Grazie,
Brock
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