August 15, 2000, Day 9

(after the Opening ceremonies in St. Peter's Square)

Diary entry from Matt Murphy

We woke up in Parusia and we all packed onto the bus and drove to the Church of the Annunciation and had mass with St. Mary's, St. Ann's, and St. Thomas.  Fr. John celebrated the Mass.  Fr. Jim explained that the design of the altar was done with Jesus Christ as priest, prophet, and king.  We left from the church and drove to Rome and registered for World Youth Day.  Then we drove and checked into the hotel.   Then we left straight to go the World Youth Day ceremonies.  When we got there, there was about one million people packed into ST. Peter's square.  The Pope came in the popemoblie.  When the Pope was up there, he cried because he was so happy to see the youth of the world gathered together.  One of the most spiritual moments for me at the opening ceremony, people were chanting, "John Paul II, we love you!" and then he returned, "John Paul II, he loves you!"  Also everyone at the assembly was singing songs, and showing unity between the different cultures and languages.  It showed the Catholicism of the whole world.When we got there we were in a spot where we couldn't see the Pope, and it was really important to me to see the Pope in person.  So we all tried to get to the middle to see the Pope.   It was really special for me to see the Pope in real life.  He's someone I've looked up to my whole life, and just to see his face was incredible.  Coming home we had to all try and cram on the Metro because that was the only transportation in the whole city.  Luckily there was no violence in the Metro.  When we got back our bus driver made arrangements for us to get something to eat even though it was past one in the morning.  We then drove home and slept hard.  We got home about 2:30am and went to bed.  It was a tiring, but a day I will never forget and will always hold dear to.

Matt saying hi (508 kB)

Travel log

Today we work up at the normal time (8am), ate another breakfast of rolls, packed up our stuff and headed towards the Church of the Annunciation (right name?).  There we heard Mass along with St. Mary's, St. Ann's, and St. Thomas.  The church was not made for the 130 people there, so it was pretty cozy.  The newly ordained Fr. John said Mass.  After Mass we headed towards Rome.  In Rome we checked into the hotel and then headed towards the opening ceremonies.  Because of the World Youth Day celebrations, they were not letting any buses into the city (our hotel is just outside of the city).  Instead, everyone has to rely on public transportation.  So we geared up, ready for pick-pockets, and headed towards St. Peter's Square and the Vatican.   The Metro was kind of busy, but not too bad.  When we arrived at our stop, there were tons of people all around, from all over the world.  As we walked towards the square, everyone held up their countries flag and sang songs.  It was an extremely festive atmosphere.  We held our American flag (and later we added a small Arizona flag below it) high and sang a couple songs, but more focused on staying together in the crowd.  Things were just getting underway when we arrived at the square.   We came in from the side, and we could barely make out the Pope on the video board.   People who had been there for a long time already began to leave so we were able to slowly squeeze our way into the square, towards the middle.  After about an hour of fidgeting we were able to get in view of the Pope.  As part of the opening ceremonies, Pope John Paul II welcomed the pilgrims from each continent, naming many of the countries of each.  Each area had a different color, and that region was called (ex. the Americas were red), everyone shook their colored paper in the air.  They had some people come dancing in with huge flags of the different colors.  As part of the celebration, the Pope declared that he was dedicating us to Mary, so they lit a candle and put it in front of a picture of Mary on the main stage.  The Pope spoke to us for a few minutes, encouraging us to turn our hearts to Jesus and to lead the Church into the new millennium.  People were crying all over the place, and even the Pope shed a tear some people said.  At one point the crowd was chanting, "J P II, we love you!" and Pope John Paul said back in a really loud, firm voice, "J P II, he loves you!"  It was probably the coolest part of the night.

Later we heard that there were approximately 700,000 people in the square, along with probably another 400,000 in the surrounding areas.  After the ceremony, we hung out for a bit and then headed towards the Metro.  Since everyone else wanted to take the Metro there was a huge line, so instead of fighting the intense crowds, we sat on the sidewalk and waited about 45 minutes for the crowds to die down. In the Metro we met the crowds again.  There were so many people on the Metro that you didn't need to hold on the bars anymore because people were shoulder to shoulder such that you couldn't move at all, even if you wanted to.  At one stop, the train didn't move for almost ten minutes.  Needless to say, it was an extremely ten minutes.  We arrived back at our pickup station after 1am.  Since most people had skipped the provided EF dinner to go to the opening ceremonies, we went to a pizza place and got some food.  We got home and got to bed close to 2:30am.  Taking the Metro was extremely frustrating and grueling, but everyone said that it was worth it because of the incredible experience of seeing the Pope.

More Pictures

Ann, Brandon, and Jessica Roll
Annunciation Church
Some artwork inside the Church of the Annunciation
The altar of the Church of the Annunciation
The bus ride to Rome
Cydney, Kate, and Megan in St. Peter's Square
A small group after the opening ceremonies
Riding the Metro (when it was empty)
Walking with the flag down the streets of Rome
Italian Foosball table with Cisco and Therese
Fr. Jim and Eric in St. Peter's Square
Standing at edge of St. Peter's Square
Jessica Roll holding up the American flag
Jessica Roll, Eric and Matt in the square
Lighting the candle in the square
Looking into the Square before we moved in
Looking into the Square before we moved in (2)
Mass in the Church of the Annunciation
Matt Henry and Brian Hanson after the opening ceremonies
Michelle looking out the window of the bus
St. Peter's Square
Hanging out with some people from Poland
Pope John Paul II
Pope on the screen, reading
The Pope's face on the screen
The Pope's face on the screen (2)
Salvatori and Brandon
Looking into St. Peter's Square
Steve proclaiming at Mass
Clock in St. Peter's Square
St. Peter's Square (2)
St. Peter's Square with shot of the moon
St. Peter's Square (3)
St. Peter's Square (4)

More MPEGs

Panning around St. Peter's Square (328 kB)
The Pope (493 kB)
Us cheering, "J P II, we love you" after opening ceremonies (144 kB)
Panning from our group to St. Peter's Square (176 kB)

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