Wow! What a day I just had! Left home at 10:00 and got home at 7:30 without ever leaving the beautiful Bronx but having a once-in-a-lifetime experience with about 50,000 other people.
I got my ticket to the Mass because I’m a lector at my church in Manhattan and won a lottery. The weather was chilly, the food at the stadium ran out, the sound system was too loud and sometimes picked up random stuff, the el trains were noisy, the security lines were ridiculous, and I loved every minute of it.
I’m still glowing. If you watched the Mass you pretty much saw what I saw; but if you have any questions about what it was like To Be There, here’s the place to ask.
Harmonius Discord, there was a lovely (if overamplified) “Concert of Hope” from 12-2 with performers ranging from Harry Connick Jr. to Ron Tynan to Stephanie Mills to four bands and lots of choirs.
As for the curse–I can imagine God throwing up His hands and saying “What do you people want from Me?!”
What Exit, not a word, although the Boston contingent, which was there as one of the five American archdioceses celebrating its 200th anniversary, got a good-natured booing when Cardinal Egan pointed them out. His remarks in general were gracious and warm, although in his German accent they sounded a little formal. Here’s his homily. He got interrupted by cheers at the end of the first paragaph and when he mentioned the defense of unborn life.
Yep, white and gold vestments. He and the rest of those wearing zuchettos had problems holding onto them in the early part of the Mass when the wind was whipping around. And I should have such hair at his age!
Sarahfeena, they had it all arranged very nicely. The most agile priests were assigned to the topmost rows and sprinted off before the Consecration was complete; each priest was accompanied by a cop, a fireman in dress uniform, or a plumed-hatted be-caped Knight of Columbus (they had to leave the swords at home). You stood up, filed out of your own row, and filed back one row down to receive, completing the loop and ending up back at your own seat. The whole stadium was like that (except the boxes and alcoves, where the priest stood at the entrances). The place looked like everybody was playing a giant game of Rattlesnake.
Foolish jackrabbit, the relics of Satan have no power in the face of the presence of the Holy Father! The Dark Lord’s power only went so far as to understaff the souvenir stands and make all the Nathan’s stands run out of hot dogs :eek: ninety minutes befoe Mass.
Gotta run off to work, but here’s a few more answers:
His English was accented but a LOT clearer than JP II’s. In fact, he sounded more German somehow when he was reading stuff; his own spontaneous remarks made his English sound better.
Baaaa! No instructions were given at Communion, but it’s hard to miss a priest and a guy in a fancy uniform trudging up the stairs at you. The pros were there to steer people.
The ordinary Yankee souvenir stands sold the items, understaffed as they were, but the only truly tacky thing I saw were baby-blue girlie T’s with the “Christ Our Hope” logo on them.
Keep the questions coming and I’ll get to them when I get back from work! Thanks!
I wonder if there were any ex-Catholics there and if it changed their minds about the religion. The poll seem to indicate that 62 percent of American Catholics disagree with the Church Doctrines.
I did not see any message of hope coming from him that wasn’t thought of before.
Hmmm…since you had to enter a lottery last month run by your church and preference was given to people who had volunteered for things, I don’t know if a lot of wavering Catholics would have gone thru the whole procedure anyway. And there’s doctrines and doctrines–I don’t believe that women shouldn’t be priests and can’t get too excited at committed couples practicing birth control and I felt just fine there.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that while the Yankee souvenir shops piled such things as T-shirts, travel mugs, and rosaries next to the baseball caps and all, there was plenty of tacky merchandise outside. It took me ninety minutes from the time I came down from the subway to the time I got to my seat, and for most of that time we were all fair game for hucksters (mostly neighborhood people) selling everything from cheap hankies with the Pope’s image to cheap flags to cheap plates, and so on. And as we lined up to get into the site of some of the greatest American traditions (baseball and excessive beer drinking, altho no alcohol was sold that day), the tradition of freedom of speech was also on display as a variety of Other Christians showed up to try to sway us from seeing what some of them called the Antichrist–everybody from nice Baptists and polite JW’s to full-bore, Whore of Babylon guys with megaphones, whom everybody delighted in yelling right back at in English and Spanish (and some Latin). It was great.
At work today, everybody, regardless of beliefs or lack thereof, wanted to hear about it. It was like I’d seen the Beatles.
I thought I’d have a chance to see His Holiness here in DC, and I volunteered to be one of the Knights of Columbus assisting… but much like the overall tickets to the event, they got way more Knights volunteering than were needed, and I didn’t make the lottery cut. And the Knights that were participatng as part of the procession (as opposed to the usher/communion support) were mostly the senior, senior rank crowd… lots of blue capes and gold capes, and so not much room for my poor little white-caped self.
Serious question: what’s the appeal? I don’t really have any way to relate to the experience. In my mind, the closest analogy would be going to Yankee stadium to see, for instance, Francis Ford Coppola say mass. It might be interesting at first (“cool, it’s Francis Ford Coppola!”), but I gotta figure that after about 10 minutes I’d just be cold and uncomfortable and wishing I’d gone to my local church.
So, if you help me understand why people get excited over the Pope, I’d appreciate it. In this case, is it sort of like going to the stadium for a game instead watching it on TV from your couch?
Also, would the specific Pope matter? I mean, I could more easily understand being eager to see John Paul the last time he came to New York, as by then he’d been active for decades and had accomplishments and a reputation there were specific to him, instead of just the office.
What about the classic His Holiness Bathtime Gift Set? Pope on a Rope. Or the rarer and much prized 8" resin model (only 5000 made!!!) commemorating his skiing holiday? Pope on a Slope
Do they get communion to everyone? If so, how?
