…to see Pope Benedict XVI! (part 1)

Yesterday we had the amazing opportunity to see the pope twice.  First, as many of you know, we received tickets from the Catholic Student Center at UMD to attend the mass at  Nationals Stadium in downtown DC.  Also, we received tickets to line the pope’s parade route on Catholic University of America’s campus as he traveled from his speech to Catholic educators to the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center for an interfaith dialogue event.  In this blog post, we will recount the story in as much detail as possible to give you the full picture of what it was like to get to see the pope.

Getting to the Stadium
We woke up at 5 am in order to be at the metro station by 6 am.  On arriving at the Metro station, we were greeted by probably 50-75 other Catholic Terps who were heading downtown, all wearing our bright red Catholic Terps shirts.   They were full of energy, cheering at every new person from our group who came up the escalator.

Fortunately, we only had to wait a few minutes for the next train to arrive (which was already pretty full.  We boarded it, and had to stand the whole way.  At each stop, more and more people got on the train.  People heading to work downtown and people headed to the mass (only the green line that runs through College Park goes to the Nationals Stadium- we were fortunately able to get on early along the route) made for a lot of congestion and some short tempers on the part of the daily commuters, but we all made it to our destination safely.

As we were walking to the stadium, we were given signs to hold up for the pope and pro-life bumper stickers from Sirius Satellite Radio.  We were also given what looked to be prayer cards with the label “Pope Benedict XVI Souvenir” that were actually anti-Catholic propaganda tracts.  Oh what fun!  We threw those out after getting in to the park.

The Pre-Mass Show
On arriving at the stadium, we of course had to pass through security.  Alex set off the medal detector and had to get wanded down.  Turns out it was for some religious medals he had brought to be blessed by the pope that he had forgotten about.  The scene of Alex being wanded down by police as he holds a bag of saint medals as if they just found drugs was priceless!

After that, we were given bags containing the program for the mass along with some different commemorative magazines and a Vatican flag to wave.  We walked past the tent with the 100 or so of priests hearing confessions.  There was a long line of people waiting to get in.

Next, we walked all around the stadium.  We spied several busses being unloaded full of cardinals and bishops.  We were excited to see Bishop Wuerl celebrate mass at the CSC a few months ago and for Alex to get to shake his hand during the Rite of Election at the Basilica.  Now there were probably 50 or 60 Bishops walking into the stadium together.  Craziness.

We walked around the stadium some more and decided to hop in one of the less ridiculously long lines for memorabilia.  We had really wanted the pope to bless a crucifix to hang in our home (when we get one together), so we were hoping to be able to pick one up there.  We waited probably 45 minutes in a line to get to the counter as priests in front of us were buying up shirts and rosaries for people back at home.  It was hard to get angry at priests, so we just waited patiently.

One of the coolest aspects of the day was seeing so many priests, deacons, seminary students, brothers, and nuns so excited and enthusiastic, of course to see the pope, but also just to be spending time with one another.  The day before the mass, in his address to the US bishops at the Crypt Church in the Basilica, Pope Benedict had said that one of the best ways to encourage growth in the number of people drawn to religious life was to show the fraternity that exists in the religious communities, and you could definitely see it there at the stadium.  Everyone was excited to be there and was excited to be together.  Hopefully many of the children and young adults in attendance will remember this day as they attempt to discern their own vocations in life!

Well, that concludes part 1 of this post about our day with the pope.  Keep checking back to read all about the rest of this fantastic day!

Here are our photos from the day. Hope you enjoy them.

Pope Benedict XVI Mass