Remembering: Pope St. John Paul II in Vatican City

With Pope Francis' recent visit to the Philippines, I started thinking about the two times I saw Pope St. John Paul II. The first time I saw him was in 1995 when he visited Manila for World Youth Day. He was in his Pope mobile and I was probably about 50 feet away as he passed by. The second time I saw him was in St. Peter's Square in Vatican on Christmas Day where we heard him say his Christmas message to the world. This time around, I was much closer.

This encounter happened by chance. I was assigned in Europe for a short-term project over the winter months many years ago and instead of heading home for Christmas, I decided to bring my mom to Europe instead. My mom had never been to Rome so I made it part of our itinerary and we decided to spend Christmas in Vatican City.

When we got to the Vatican, we entered St. Peter's Basilica hoping to hear Christmas mass there. There didn't seem to be one, at least not at the time that we were there. We spent some time inside the church praying, marveling at the amazing architecture and art inside, and taking photos before stepping out. As we did, we saw a massive crowd gathered outside.

We figured there must be something going on in St. Peter's Square that afternoon so we decided to stick around. There was some kind of stage right outside the door of St. Peter's Basilica and we positioned ourselves at the side of this area. Shortly after, a parade started.

I took a video of it but this was 2002 and my digital camera at the time was only 3.3 megapixels with a capability to take only up to 15-second videos so you have to forgive this for being grainy and very short. :)

Pope St. John Paul II then came out, much to the surprise and amazement of me and my mom. Neither of us were expecting to see the Pope during this trip. It turned out that this was the Pope's Christmas message, where he says "Merry Christmas" in about 60 or so languages. I remember seeing this on TV before so to be physically there was almost surreal. I honestly can't remember how the Pope said Merry Christmas in Filipino - I'm guessing "Maligayang Pasko" - but as he did, both my mom and I cheered loudly. :)

After his Christmas message, Pope St. John Paul II boarded his Pope mobile which actually passed right in front of us!

It was a truly amazing experience to celebrate Christmas day in Vatican City and to see Pope St. John Paul II while we were there.