Pope John Paul II had a way of seeing each one of us. Whatever our country. Whatever our language. Including those who were not Catholic.
For two days I’d been on the road with only a couple of bagels and some water to keep me going. There was no time to eat. Covering Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United States for Catholic Digest in 1995, I’d joined Christian pop singer Kathy Troccoli’s entourage as Troccoli performed warm-up concerts for the papal festivities on the East Coast.
We were backstage in Central Park, and the crowd seemed to electrify in anticipation of the pope’s imminent arrival. Troccoli had just finished her songs. Singer Roberta Flack, a tiny woman with an immense voice, glided in from the wings and began singing “The First Time Ever I 
Saw Your Face.” Folks backstage said the pope himself had requested this song. It was beautiful, but we couldn’t stick around to listen.
We had to move fast. Nobody had gotten a lot of sleep; our wake-up call had come at 3:30 a.m. Groggily, we jumped into a golf cart and sped to a van that carried us to the airport. By the time Pope John Paul II was saying Mass in New York City, we were riding through downtown Baltimore in a motorcade of white limousines with crowds cheering on both sides of the street.
To feel the excitement that precedes a papal visit is a once-in-lifetime experience. Even the backstage crews, who routinely deal with celebrity and had seen it all, told me they had never seen 
anything quite like this.
The VIP boxes at Camden Yards, where the pope was scheduled to say Mass, were a who’s who of media celebrity. Beside me stood “60 Minutes” anchor Mike Wallace’s son, Chris, now a Fox News anchor. Beside him stood his wife, Kelly Wallace, today an anchor at CNN. Everywhere one looked was a very familiar face.
From the VIP box we went to the green room, where members of Boyz II Men chatted casually while awaiting their time on stage. Finally, we were on the field. Troccoli sang her songs. The roar of the crowd grew crushing, and out of an entrance by the bullpen came Pope John Paul II. As the pope addressed the crowd, the noise quieted until silence descended over more than 30,000. Mass began. Every moment was moving.
After Mass, the crowd chanted for an encore. After some time backstage, greeting dignitaries, the pope obliged. He re-emerged and waved to the people until security hustled him into a waiting “popemobile.”
Nobody wanted the day to end. As we made our way out a back entrance of the stadium to our motorcade, folks slumped into their seats. After the days-long adrenaline rush, exhaustion hammered us.
As we neared our hotel, the streets were closed. I decided to walk. As I climbed from the car with 30 pounds of camera equipment on my shoulders and began trudging down the street, I found myself behind a pack of young people also heading to their hotels. It was a silent pack, numbed from days of excitement. But then, as we stumbled down a cobblestone hill, a shout arose ahead.
We could not believe our eyes. There, at the bottom of the hill, appeared the popemobile. John Paul II’s route out of Baltimore had been top secret, and we had unwittingly staggered right into it.
Suddenly, all the youth began to run. Shouting, ‘’Pope, pope, pope!” they ran toward him. They were giddy.
The holy father (how he had the stamina to outlast all of us I cannot say) looked up the street and spotted the lot of us. His face broke into a wide smile of delight.
The popemobile slowed. The pope waved.
From the front of the pack of young people, I heard one boy¹s exhilarated cry apart from all the other voices: ‘’He waved to me!”
I cannot forget the sound of this boy’s voice. And I remember the pope’s face as if I saw him only yesterday. To me, this one boy’s shout explains why this pope captivated the world. He had a way of seeing each one of us. Whatever our country. Whatever our language. Including those who were not Catholic.
Even Catholics disagree about Pope John Paul II’s legacy. But nobody doubts that he was a singular pope. John Paul II threw open the doors of the Vatican in a way no other pope ever has, even while Catholic critics accused him of slamming shut the door of Vatican II reforms. He took the Vatican online. He visited hundreds of nations.
He was impossible to ignore. In a media age, nobody can argue that In spite of 2,000 years of tradition, this was one media-savvy pope.
Photo by archer10 (Dennis) 93M Views
