Monday Message, September 8, 2025
Greetings From Rome
I do not like crowds. I do not enjoy the pushing and the shoving, or the sheer number of people that get in my personal space. I also am not a big fan of the heat. Back in 2000, I suffered a heat stroke that left me unconscious for 13 hours, and I have not been able to handle the heat ever since.
So, finding myself in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on a hot Sunday morning, standing outside in the sun, waiting for Mass to begin, surrounded by strangers who want to be where I am standing, is not a situation in which I would typically put myself on purpose. There are only two reasons for something like this to happen.
Liam and Katie.
My two youngest children have been deeply drawn to Carlo Acutis, his life story, his sacrificial suffering, and his online work on Eucharistic miracles. When they expressed a desire to attend, we began searching for an opportunity to go. Then the canonization was delayed due to the death of Pope Francis. Once we discovered a great deal on an airline we’d never flown, the pieces fell into place. We arrived on Wednesday morning and immediately headed over to the North American College to visit with our friend, Monsignor Tom Powers, once the Vicar General in our diocese and now the rector of the NAC. We toured the college, had lunch with our diocesan seminarians, and later toured the city.
On Thursday, we climbed to the top of Michelangelo’s dome of St. Peter’s and ended the day at the Scavi tour, praying before the bones of St. Peter. We enjoyed a food tour of Rome on Friday and the Borghese Museum on Saturday. We spent time with our colleague/traveling companion and social media guru, Bill Staley, who knows Rome better than some locals, and met up with Isabella, whom I lovingly call Swiss Miss – the brains behind the animated videos of Sunday’s readings and the artist behind many of our incredible creative works.
Sunday morning, Bill and I journeyed early into the square with our press passes and were able to bypass the crowds and lines, get through security, and into the near-empty square as pilgrims ran to their seats. I chose an empty corral in the back, knowing it would fill last, secured some seats on the end of the aisle, and sat. Bill headed back to the house for his CNN debut, and Isabella worked her way through security. Liam, Katie, and Maureen arrived via a different entrance and found their way to the seats I was able to save. Amidst the heat and crowds, we made friends with some young students from northern Italy who I imagined were a lot like Carlo. They were kind, compassionate, and funny. Their t-shirts featured an image of Carlo with the phrase “Original, not photocopy” in Italian, a reminder of Carlo’s call to live a life worthy of discipleship. The Holy Father came out to greet the crowd – something I had never seen before – and thanked everyone for coming, just like a good pastor would naturally do. Then he went away to vest for Mass as the crowds realized their gathering at the edges of the corrals was premature. Mass was first just as it should be.
Just after the opening prayer and the Litany of Saints, the Holy Father led a prayer that concluded with the following:
….we declare and define Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Blessed Carlo Acutis to be saints and we enroll them among the saints…
The crowd rejoiced. Liam and Katie rejoiced. Maureen cried.
Then the camera panned to Carlo’s mother, and the crowd rejoiced again. Here, in our midst, is a mom who lost her son and was led to the faith by her son’s example, words, and death.
Mass continued as it usually does, and we exchanged the sign of peace with our new friends, received the Eucharist that the new saints drew so many to, and sang the final song.
Then the crowds shifted. Everyone moved towards us because I had strategically placed us near the edge of the road where the popemobile would travel. The shoving started, the elbowing and the pushing commenced. And all of it seemed to bother no one, least of all me.
A few minutes later, the Holy Father came by, and another strategic move – making room for a baby and her mom – paid off. Pope Leo XIV stopped in front of us, was handed the baby, whom he blessed and kissed and handed back, and moved on. By now, everyone was in tears, having been overwhelmed by the gentleness of the pope, the example of the two young men the Church had elevated to sainthood, and the joy we found all around us. It was, in the end, what every Sunday Mass should feel like – absent the heat, please God.
I bought a present for all of you and hope to see you at the Fall Forum on September 13th. Please feel free to register here if you haven’t already. In addition, our first Parish Leader Check In is tomorrow, and we can catch up on the rest of the news then.
Heading home tomorrow, exhausted and yet renewed and exhilarated for a new year, new saints, and more adventures in this ministry we share.
pjd
