Due to its location, The St. John's University Rome campus has
been especially affected by the passing of the Pope. Over the past
days, every student and administrator has seen that affect in a
very personal way. Most, if not all, students have been to the
Vatican at all times of the day and night since the news of the
Pope's illness. We heard on Friday that the Pope was slipping in
and out of consciousness, and several students stayed at the
Vatican throughout the night. On Saturday, the news was filled with
reports on his health. Unfortunately, only some of the
apartments have British CNN, therefore most of the students were
watching only Italian television on what was happening. Whether
they could understand all that was being said was not the issue, to
simply be a part of what was going on was more
important.
Once hearing about the death of the Pope (9:37 p.m.) on Saturday
night, many students rushed to the Vatican. Some went just to be
there, and some went to pay their last respects. The bell rung loud
in the Vatican at around 10:20 p.m. and that was the time when all
became reality.
The next day, Sunday, I woke up early to attend the mass. As I
passed the entrance to the square in the bus, I could not believe
the amount of people. There were police officials everywhere giving
out water and newspapers. I got into the square at 9:30 a.m. and
surprisingly made it close to the front. At 9:45 a.m., I turned
around and the entire square was filled with people. Just minutes
later, the officials closed off the square and those people coming
in were forced to only hear the mass from outside the
pillars.
As the mass went on, people of all ages had posters, newspapers and
postcards of the Pope. From the top rafters of the Vatican Square,
news reporters zoomed in on these people, and the images appeared
on the large screens in the square. As these images appeared, the
crowd cheered. People held signs and flags of their countries,
symbolizing where they had come from. All throughout the square
people were chanting, "Giovanni Paolo! Giovanni Paolo!
Alleluia!"
One of the biggest surprises for me was the large number of young
people at the mass. There was a little girl in front of me who
could not have been over five years old. She was being held by her
mother and with a tissue in hand, crying. It was amazing to me that
she not only knew what was happening, but that she wept from
sorrow.
They moved the Pope's body into St. Peter's Basilica on Monday
afternoon. At 12:30 p.m. Tuesday morning, I left my apartment to
become one of the many waiting throughout the night to pay my
respects to Pope John Paul II. Being extremely fortunate, I only
had to wait two and a half hours before I was at the steps of the
extraordinary St. Peter's Basilica. I turned around, looked at the
thousands of people, and cried at the mere thought of what I was
about to experience. Walking down the aisle of the Basilica, I felt
so calm and peaceful. I walked up to the body of John Paul II,
prayed for him to rest in peace and left through the enormous doors
of the Basilica.
As I walked out of the square I stopped in awe at all the
shrines, pictures and candles that were laid out. I had to
walk through people in sleeping bags to exit the square. At that
point, I occurred to me what exactly I had just experienced!