On Sunday, August 30, we were blessed with the wonderful opportunity to see Pope Benedict for his Sunday Angelus and address at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. It was one of our many exciting orientation excursions.
You can watch the full video at the link below. At about 8:00 in, you can hear the Holy Father impart his apostolic blessing, and the seminarians respond. At 10:50 is when the pope welcomes to Rome the ‘First year seminarians of the Pontifical North American College.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkG97I5w21w
Castel Gandolfo is the summer residence of the Holy Father, since Rome is pretty muggy at that time of year. Since we were a group of seminarians, we got to stand in a special place near the front of the courtyard, and our dress for the day was formal clerical (cassocks and clerical shirts with suitcoats).
It was truly a graced and blessed moment to be so close to the Holy Father, who is Peter, the bearer of the keys of the kingdom (M 16:18). Usually the pope comes out, greets the people, gives a brief address/ catechesis, and then prays the angelus. Afterwards he greets the pilgrims from different countries in different languages, including us! We had the opportunity then to sing ‘Ad Multos Annos’ for the Holy Father, another NAC tradition.
After the Angelus and lunch, we had the opportunity to go on a tour of the papal gardens at Castel Galfondo, thanks to Archbishop Harvey who is the prefect of the Papal Household and an American.
The gardens were very beautiful and very well kept, and were actually orginally built by the emperor Domitian (later 1st century AD). Popes have pent their summers at Castel Gandolfo for centuries, except during the 70 or so years when the Pope was a prisoner of the Vatican after the unification of Italy, and during World War II (During the war, Pius XII and other Catholics had hidden Jews here).
One of the most powerful experiences for me here was the experience of closeness to the Holy Father – especially Pope Benedict XVI, but also Pope John Paul II. We saw and prayed by the fish pond where everyday Pope Benedict feeds the fish, which is near a statue of the Blessed Virgin by which John Paul would daily sing a Polish Marian Hymn. Here we sang the Salve Regina, and it was very profound!
After the tours we headed back to Rome to continue with our orientation.