Paparatzifan/Gloria's loving
farewell to our Papa Bene
February 26-27
It's strange but this year, unlike when I first started the Ratzingerian adventure of my life that blessed April 19, 2005, and afterwards, when I planned my 'encounters' with B16 ahead of time. And yet this year, inexplicably, I had not yet planned anything.
For some time I had been thinking of taking part in a Mass with a solemn papal benediction such as the Easter Vigil Mass with the Urbi et Orbi that follows the day after. One year, I even got a ticket but unfortunately, I was unable to leave because of work, so I missed the opportunity... Or, I thought, the Mass and procession of Corpus Domini... I speak of these two Masses in particular because I have attended so many other Masses of his during the past eight years.
And so, this year, I had nothing scheduled yet, as if I could decide it later. And it turns out it was not to be1
Everything was precipitated. At the incredible announcement of his renunciation on February 11, I had to plan in haste because there was no time to waste. He was going to have only a few public events more until February 28. I decided not to miss those of his last two days as the reigning Pope.
I absolutely did not want to miss seeing him once more, not knowing whether on the future, there would ever be another chance to see him.
Meanwhile, days of sorrow, for this visit of farewell. Days of interminable tears...
The trip which began February 26 was one I had never thought to do - an emergency visit because perhaps it would be the last one possible...
Piazza San Pietro, February 26, 6 PM
There are no more tickets available for the General Audience tomorrow. I know thickets are not really needed, but I wanted to have one as a souvenir
I thought it would be fine - that surely, somewhere soon, along the barriers around St. Peter's Square, I would meet Concetta [an elderly Roman lady who has always managed to turn up in the news photographs taken of the Pope's public events in Rome, which photographs Gloria and others in the Italian section of the PRF took to posting regularly], of Papa's two Bavarian fans from the PRF, or anyone from the Forum who might have an the extra ticket.
As I walked away from the piazza, I heard songs and chants of "Benedetto, Benedetto". It was a group of young people who were gathered in front of the Apostolic Palace and were looking up to the third story...
They were singing -
"Resta qui con noi/il sole scende già./Resta qui con noi/Signore è sera ormai".
"Resta qui con noi/il sole scende già./Se tu sei fra noi/La notte non verrà".
{Stay here with us, The sun is setting. Stay here with us. Master, it is evening now.
Stay here with us, the sun is setting. If you are with us, then night will not come.]
It was impossible to keep back the tears. Impossible not to join them in their song. Impossible not to chant out with them "BE-NE-DET-TO" in the hope that we might see him look out of his window.
Piazza San Pietro, February 27, 6:20 AM
I arrive in panic! The area around the police barriers is already full of groups, mostly German. I check around to look for Concetta. I see her, call out and she sees me. Besides Concetta, I see the two faithful Bavarian women (Elizabeth and Marianne), behind them Lilli-benedettofan, who was waiting for benevolens-Eva to arrive.
What can I say? We have gotten to know each other at events like these through the past eight years, not just in Rome, but in Castel Gandolfo, in Les Combes, in Lorenzago, in Bressanone...
Concetta did not have an extra ticket but one of the German girls with Lilli gave me one. I told them that in the afternoon, there would be a torchlight prayer vigil for the Pope at the Piazza, promoted by a group of nuns.
They opened the entrances at 7:15. I was distracted when this happened because I was on the cellphone. The rush forward almost made me lose a shoe. There was a half hour of waiting to get through the security checks.And then... the run to find a good place.
They would not let me get through to the front sector that I have usually chosen in the past. This time, it was reserved. So, where to stand that would be right next to the central corridor of the Popemobile's route? Concetta comes up from her security check. In the rush, the breakfast she had in a paper bag was ruined because the coffee had spilled. We moved on to the zone where the two Bavarians had found a place. Lilli and her friend were a few rows ahead. And then Eva arrived.
I set about to attach the streamer I had brought:
Right photo, Eva and Lilli.
'DO NOT LEAVE US! HOLY FATHER, WE LOVE YOU!'
Now the long wait under a splendid sun. We had to take off our coats, in my case, to show the beautiful B16 T-shirt that Caterina had made for me with the Pope's picture. [How I missed having her with me!
(They were last together for the Pope's visit to Venice last year.) There were all kinds of B16 T-shirts worn by those present.
Here are some of the crowd scenes:
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Left photo, above: Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich was among the Bavarians in the crowd.
10:40 am - ten minutes late - but here he is! Acclaimed perhaps even much more than before. The enormous banner across from us that read BENEDETTO, DI NUOVO PAPA. was very prominent and he could not have missed it.
I was aware that I would see the Pope pass in front of me just one time and I promised myself I would look him in the eye ... What can I say of that moment? A cry of despair came out when he looked at me, PAPAAAAA, STAY WITH US!... A last gesture to let him know how juch we love him... STAY WITH US!
The key phrase during the audience: "The Church is not mine, it is not ours, It is Christ's!" He was interrupted so many times by applause. And we all seemed to have gathered around him for an infinite embrace.
And at noon, he left...
Eva, Lilli and I burst into uncontrolled weeping. Tears that, at least I, had miraculously kept back during the whole catechesis...
Piazza San Pietro, February 27, 7:00-8:30 pm
A torch procession and prayer vigil for the Pope. We went around the Piazza with lit candles reciting the Rosary. After each decade, we stopped and looked up toward the lit windows on the third floor.
At one point, a TV team approached and the reporter said to me: "Great emotion tonight..." And I said, "Yes, because we are praying for the Holy Father, that he may always be with us in these difficult moments for the Church and for us".
I will add the last part of Gloria's account with the photos that she took in St. Peter's square on Feb. 28 when the crowd watched the images of Benedict XVI leaving the Apostolic Palace for the last time as Pope and flying off to Castel Gandolfo... And images of our Papino's books in the showcases of the stores along the Via della Conciliazione.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/03/2013 13:13]