Journal of My Experiences
In the morning, Andrew and me traveled into Koln with our Group. We were quite excited about our meeting with the Holy Father. Our first stop in the morning was St. Andreas Church, which held the relics of St. Albert the Great. The church was being operated as a Dominican Headquarters. They were selling very cheap Rosaries outside, only 2$ each � I was about to buy 6$ Rosaries the night before. We bought a very large number. They had been made out of wood from the Holy Land and the donation was to help peace efforts.
Like the Taize church, it had been set aside for prayer, and there was Eucharistic Adoration taking place inside. We took some time both to tour and pray. We went down into the crypt, and I touched my rosaries to the tomb � I guess that makes them something like 7th class relics? Another special site to pray.
On our way to St. Pantaleons, we stopped in a Religious goods store. The store had many antiques for sale, most were more than 500 Euros. We did a lot of window shopping and spoke with the shop owners. They complimented my German. We bought some cheaper icons made of bronze, mine of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia (Often called �of Hungary�, but the girl lived in Germany from age 4 until her death). She is one of my favorite German saints and many churches in Bruce County have a window or statue of her in them.
We stopped for a simple lunch and kept on trucking. We made it to St. Pantaleon�s about an hour earlier than scheduled. However, they let us in anyway. There was some pretty thorough security, but the police officers were very kind � less threatening than in most cases. (I was surprised by the lack of security at this World Youth Day. We only had our bags searched twice. In Toronto it happened daily).
Inside we met up with Fr. Paul Nicholson, Jeff, Charbel, Brad, John Pak and Peter Choi. We got some apple juice to drink, which was carbonated � as almost all liquids were in Europe. Inside we met a variety of American Seminarians � many of which were decked out in clericals or cassocks. They commented on how cruel the Europeans had been to them � they were even booed while singing their national anthem. I was especially entertained by a short little guy in clerics who said, �You�d think every single one of us said to Bush �Go Blow up Iraq� No. We were saying �Listen to the Pope You Idiot!� Every encounter with Americans made me love them more and more. The dress of seminarians differed from shorts and T-shirt to Legionary style cassock, shiny shoes, and shiny hair.
We also met up with Fr. Dan Utrecht, some seminarians from St. Peter�s seminary in London, and a very kind seminarian from Vancouver with whom I talked for a lengthy time. We also saw Fr. Tom Rosica. It was very unfortunate that we could not use him to get us a better view � especially with a future Basilian in our group. Around 4, about an hour before the Pope�s arrival, it began to rain. I had only brought a garbage bag as protection. Unfortunately, it was quite smaller than expected. We sat under a tree, and I stacked newspaper around me � a rather pathetic looking sight, but we stayed warm, which was the most important thing.
We were being entertained by the �International Priest Band� a very peculiar bunch, but one of it�s members was a priest from Canada. I have to look them up on the internet � they were a mix of cheese and genuine good old fun. The names of various countries were called out. This time the seminarians cheered, unlike on Wednesday the crowd was far more rowdy. The arrival of our Holy Father can do this to seminarians. Canada was given a special mention for the number of seminarians who arrived � an affair that surprised me.
Luckily the rain stopped, as we gathered around a barrier where we believed the Pope was to appear. We pushed and fought. I had an excellent spot, the only thing separating me being a hedge. Andrew Bourque climbed onto a ledge on the church, and one seminarian climbed a tree. One seminarian butted his way in front of me and then complained about the pushing � I thought, �you asked for it buddy.� The cheering got louder and louder, as we knew the Pope was very close. The Spanish were �Viva�ing it up with great fervor � my favorite chant being �Long Live Catholic Spain�. Then the next thing we heard, from the speakers behind us was a �Deus in Adjutorium Meum Intende� We could figure out how the Pope got into the cloister without passing in front of us.
We had Vespers with our Holy Father. In between each Psalm, someone gave a story of his calling. First was a seminarian from Cologne. Then there was a priest from Kazakhstan who talked of his reversion to Catholicism after becoming an atheist during communist rule. Finally was Cardinal Oullete the primate of Canada. He spoke in French, and unfortunately the English translation died in the middle of his speech. One memorable moment, however, was when he spoke of his childhood and how he enjoyed playing hockey. �Le sport nationale du Canada� - We ROARED.
Our Holy Father spoke in various languages. The Translation broke down, so we could only appreciate the words he spoke in English. He spoke of how the seminary is a time to grow close to Christ. It is to be a true �springtime� in which we grow closer and closer to our Savoir. He also spoke of how important our formators are and how we should be grateful for them and thank them. It was nice to pray with our Holy Father, even if separated by a visible barrier.
At the end we all rushed to get a sight of our Holy Father. However, unlike what was promised, he did not come to greet our section. Instead he got in the Pope mobile and went the opposite direction. We were able to see the back of his head for a second though. Either way, my love for the Pope was not tempered by this incident.
As soon as the pope left, it began to rain VERY HARD. We were soaked through and through, and had a very difficult time trying to find each other after all the commotion. As we regrouped we ran as fast as possible to the closest subway station. Charbel and company taught us a great national cheer �OU Ah CAN-A-DA say OU AH CANADA� which caught on. We were separated in the train and began to shout it back and forth � a glorious time. We also said to the same tune �We�re all soaking wet say We�re all soaking wet!!!� We were truly drenched to the gills.
We decided that due to our wet state, we would travel back to Dusseldorf to dry off. We were too wet for the Stations of the cross anyway. On our way back we spoke with a seminarian from England who was blessed to shake our Pontiff�s hand. We also spoke with an older lady who was really kind and some Canadians from Halifax. Some Argentinean people gave us some Pesos from there country as a souvenir. A local lady was really upset by the whole crowd. Once when I began to cheer she cringed, so we stopped and tried to apologize. On the train some people sang �The night Patty Murphy died� We were sure they were from Eastern Canada, but were unable to find them. It was a joyous time.
We ate at a restaurant in the Dusseldorf train station. He was a very goofy kind of man, and showed us a concealed World Youth Day pin in support. I had ordered fish, but was mortified to find it served cold. But as stated earlier, the hungry do not complain. In between ordering, I went to the drug store near by and bought an umbrella and the biggest garbage bags I could find (I discovered they were still quite small, but did serve to help keep some stuff dry).
Since we had missed the Stations of the cross, we prayed them together in our room after the trip. Again this was a special time of prayer, even though we were quite tired. I was very glad to spend these two seminarian days with Andrew. They were phenomenal. Providence seemed with us at every turn.
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