For the past 25 years, I have been supremely blessed to have met three Popes “face-to-face” in mostly private audiences on several different occasions in the Vatican as a result of my book publishing and ecumenical work.
June 1995 – St. John Paul II
The first of my three encounters with St. John Paul II was with a group of 70 pilgrims from the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh who went to Rome to witness Archbishop Judson Procyk receiving the pallium as a newly appointed Metropolitan Archbishop. The pallium ceremony was conducted privately in a papal chapel where the Pope presented it to Archbishop Judson. After the service, we all gathered in the Clementine Audience Hall and St. John Paul walked from person to person, greeting each of us and giving us a blessing. Although the meeting was less than 1 minute, it was still very humbling and inspirational to meet such a holy man.
December 1999 – St. John Paul II
A few years later, as I was working with Archbishop Vsevolod of Scopelos, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America, on a liturgical book reprint, we arranged a trip to Rome for the feast of St. Nicholas and the archbishop’s birthday. We first visited the tomb and basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari, southern Italy. When we returned to Rome, Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, arranged two special events. Early in the morning of December 10th, Archbishop Vsevolod was given permission to serve a Divine Liturgy at the tomb of St. Peter in the Crypt of the Basilica. I believe this was the first time since the schism of 1054 that an Orthodox bishop served a Liturgy in that crypt. Then, we were escorted to the Apostolic Palace for a VERY private audience with only the archbishop, myself and a priest/translator present. I presented five bound volumes of Eastern Churches Journal to His Holiness, and I received a numbered medallion as a gift. The Pope held my hand for 4-5 minutes while the priest explained who I was and why I was there. A wave of emotion came over me has he held my hand, as if I was holding the hand of Christ.
November 2004 – St. John Paul II
As St. John Paul’s health was declining, I went again with Archbishop Vsevolod, Msgr. George Dobes, a close friend, and Father Ray Collins, Dean of the School of Theology at Catholic University of America, on a farewell visit to see His Holiness. We were representing the Orientale Lumen Conferences and I presented five more volumes of Eastern Churches Journal. It was a blessed and memorable event to experience the warmth of his eyes, and especially how they brightened when his old friend the archbishop came to visit. By then, he couldn’t speak and could only gesture with his hands to give us his blessing. It was sad to see a man who had once been so animated just sit and listen, hardly able to move.
November 2005 – Pope Benedict XVI
The next year, six months after Pope Benedict’s election, we arranged a private audience with him to introduce the Orientale Lumen Conferences and our “grass roots” form of ecumenical dialogue. Pope Benedict was a much more studied and private person, and we were told he did not grant very many audiences. But nevertheless, Archbishop Vsevolod, Bishop John Michael Botean, Msgr. George Dobes and I were warmly greeted by His Holiness. I presented a special white-leather bound edition of the book We Are All Brothers which was a collection of talks and essays by the archbishop. He dedicated the book to the memory of St. John Paul II, and when I gave to him, he immediately opened the cover and read through the Table of Contents with keen interest, the theologian that he was. He even asked a few questions about some of the entries, but being so surprised by his interest, I can’t remember what they were!
October 2014 – Pope Francis
With the election of Pope Francis, I organized a pilgrimage with Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia for a group of 40 pilgrims who were Greek Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic, sponsored by the Orientale Lumen Foundation. When we arrived at Vatican City on our chartered bus which was escorted through the narrow streets to the road leading to the Apostolic Palace. A special room of 40 seats had been prepared for us to meet with the Pope. His remarks, which were delivered in Italian, were printed in English on each chair. We gave him an icon of Sts. Peter and Andrew commissioned for the occasion. I also presented a book of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in Argentinian Spanish originally published in Buenos Aires. His eyes lit up like on Christmas morning when he heard the book was in Spanish from his home country!
October 2016 – Pope Francis A few years later, I lead a small group of 10 pilgrims on another trip to Rome, Bari and Ravenna. Instead of a private audience, we had reserved seats in the very front row at the weekly General Audience with seats no more than 50 feet for the entire hour. At the end of the audience, we presented a specially commissioned icon of St. Francis as a gift, and then he greeted each of us one by one. It was amazing to stand on the top steps leading to St. Peter’s Basilica and look out at 100,000 people in the square while they were looking up at us!