It was Jonathan who first asked if we could see the Pope while we were in Rome. Ron's first reaction was: "Sure. We'll just invite him to lunch." But we decided to look into it.

It turned out to be not only possible, it was relatively easy to accomplish! The Pope conducts a regular audience every Wednesday morning when he’s in Rome. And anyone (even Anglicans like us) can send a request to the Vatican Prefecture and get tickets.... free, while they last.

Here's a picture of our fellow pilgrims, just before the "private" audience began. See if you can find Ron and Jonathan in the crowd!

Unfortunately, it was impossible to get a good picture of the Pope from our seats. You can see why.

The Pope was so frail he was wheeled out on a platform -- but he spoke for 10 minutes in Italian, then repeated a shorter version of his message in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Polish. Between his speeches, a Bishop in the entourage would announce the names of various groups in attendance, giving them a chance to cheer loudly. They came from all over the world. It also gave the Pope time to catch his breath and wave to them, which made them cheer even more. Clearly the Pope was nourished by the crowd. As for his linguistic skills, his English was accented but fluent. Beyond that, among us we also have some command of French, German and Spanish, and we were impressed by his ability.