Pope Benedict XVI's General Audience

I haven't posted in forever, so I am going to write about my last week in sections. This is part 2/4

On Wednesday, June 6, I went to Pope Benedict XVI's general audience, which my professor calls the Pope rally. I was at the Vatican in high school but not for a general audience. Throughout the trip all the girls in my program have been collecting rosaries and other religious items to get them blessed by the Pope at the Pope rally. We had bus tickets to get to the Vatican but we could also just walk along the river, which is a nice walk so we decided to do that. It was about a 35 minute walk from our apartment.

I turned a street corner and all of the sudden was standing in front of St. Peter's Square. It's a magnificent sight. The general audience is every Wednesday and free of charge but you have to reserve tickets in advance. My class sat together in St. Peter's square, where thousands of chairs were set up in front of a stage where the Pope would be. There were projection screens for the people in the back to see better. I would estimate a few thousand people were there (no idea how to tell though). Some groups were clearly identifiable because they all were wearing the same hat. In particular, there was one group of many hundred wearing white hats that were spread throughout the audience but some of them were sitting right behind us. We anxiously awaited for the beginning when the Pope would be driven around and wave to the audience. When this happened, everyone went crazy! It was a funny sight to see people from so many countries and cultures get so excited about the same thing. Especially the group with the white hats. They were hysterical.

The Pope went to the stage and Cardinals began to address the audience. There were about 6 different Cardinals speaking different languages to the audience. Each one announced over a microphone groups of pilgrims, members of churches, and other groups at the general audience. When a group was announced, they cheered for a while, or sang, or even played musical instruments. The English speaking Cardinal announced, "Rome students from Penn State University in Pennsylvania" and we cheered for our group! The whole thing lasted a little bit over an hour. I loved seeing people from different places bond over the same thing. At the end the Pope blessed the audience which was very special to everyone.

I'm not Catholic, but many of my friends are, so I enjoyed the experience on their behalf and also loved it for myself!

Here is a picture of some of the audience in St. Peter's Square:

Here is a picture of Pope Benedict XVI passing by us on the Pope-mobile!: