Rome, the Eternal City, and the City of Saints and Sinners

One of the perks of being the National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS), is that I get a chance each year to meet the Pope.  It’s the perfect panacea and blessing for the seven days of intense and long deliberations that we National Directors have to endure at our yearly assembly.

The chance of a papal encounter this year was initially thought to be highly improbable because of Pope Francis’ ill health and his eventual death.  That improbability changed a few days before I boarded the plane; thanks to a quick conclave, and to Pope Leo XIV virtually commencing work immediately, well before the echoes of “Habemus Papam” quietened down around Rome and the world.  All of a sudden, on the eve of my departure for Rome, our papal audience came back on the agenda.

Travelling with me on the plane was a couple from Christchurch, ex-parishioners of mine, who are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in the Year of Jubilee.  Our arrival in Rome was on the eve of the assembly of Directors, and it coincided also with the eve of Pope Leo’s XIV’s first Wednesday’s audience at St Peter’s.  It meant Rome was buzzing with excitement, and it felt more crowded than usual.  We had less than twenty-four hours to acclimatise, and I had half a day to show them around.  The couple wanted to say a prayer at the tomb of Pope Francis, and to queue for the tickets for the Wednesday audience.  It rained, and despite their wish to travel by taxi, I encouraged them to follow me and take the bus and train, citing it was perfectly safe if they were to be attentive to their wallets.  Rome, after all, is not only the city of the Popes, but also a city of thieves and pick-pockets!

We arrived at Basilica of St Mary Majors to find ourselves at the end of a long queue standing in the rain – and that queue was just to get past the security!   Christchurch was also represented by another group, from which came a voice, “Father Michael, Christchurch here…!” as we rushed to get to the back of the long queue.  When we finally got into the Basilica, we had only about five seconds to file past the tomb of Pope Francis.  It was a deflating experience and it got a bit dramatic when I received a public telling off by a policeman for slowing down the queue, trying twice to take a photo of the couple!  Then, to add insult to injury for the day, on our way home, the couple got pickpocketed the very minute we boarded the crowded train!  The exhausting day had made them less attentive.  They lost all their credit cards and cash.  Immediately after the theft, several transactions were made within the minutes of the theft of their credit-cards – no thanks to ‘PayWave’.    The hellish nightmare continued for us as they had to make numerous phone calls to cancel the cards, and lodge a police report.  There was also the matter of how they were to survive in Rome for a week, penniless!  Welcome to Rome!

Later in the day we confronted another long queue.  It took hours to get the tickets to the Papal Audience that the couple had requested online.  It was a good time for a good post mortem of the day.   The next morning, we caught up for my private Mass in the Chapel at C.I.A.M (International Centre for Missionary Animation).  At Mass, the saintly couple prayed for the conversion of the thieves, that they find employment and change their ways!  C.I.A.M is located next to St Peter’s Basilica on the hill.  The couple were too tired to queue up again to enter St Peter’s square for the audience, but as I compose this, they were going to queue again for another set of tickets for the next audience on the eve of their departure from Rome!  All is not lost, we witnessed the first Wednesday Papal Audience of Leo XIV from C.I.A.M, from where the speeches and prayers were all within audible distance.  It was actually a better spot from a photographic perspective.

Just before midday, I farewelled the couple and left for the Assembly of Directors at the Capuchin’s College of St Lawrence of Brindisi, whose feast day is the anniversary of my ordination twenty-five years ago, in the year of the Great Jubilee 2000.  I have many times preached that, through the eyes of faith, one sees providences more than coincidences.  Yet, even with this vision, I could not help thinking I was about to start my earthly ‘purgatory’ as the bus snaked through Rome!

The Assembly of Directors opened with a luncheon and concluded in the evening with an address by His Eminence, Cardinal Tagle.  He was one of the “papabile” who entered the conclave as a Pope and came out a cardinal.  Cardinal Tagle is the Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, making him the Cardinal in charge of the Pontifical Mission.  That evening, at the end of his address, I posed the final question from the floor, asking his thoughts about our task to update the Statutes of the PMS; and that the ‘draft’ Statutes may still contain elements that stifle ‘creativity’, which Pope Francis asked us to explore in our work.  The next day, we were to join the cardinal in a concelebrated Mass at St Peter’s, followed by a Papal audience.

Every National Director was looking forward to meeting and greeting the (new) Pope in the Clementine Hall in the Vatican.  Several directors turned up with gifts from their homeland.  I think, for one or two, it was a cunning plan to increase their time with the Pope and their photo opportunity!  I, too, had become older and wiser. This year, I managed to secure the second row of seats!  And I had in my hands, my trusty camera and a collection of lenses!  While the crowd was settling down, to my surprise, Cardinal Tagle zoomed up to me (pun intended) and thanked me for the question I had asked him the evening before.  We had a brief discussion, after which, we all sat in silence for Pope Leo XIV.  The wait felt like an eternity.  Leo XIV entered, greeted by a huge applause.  He gave a short address in English, and encouraged us in our work and asked us “…to give priority to visiting dioceses, parishes and communities, and in this way help the faithful to recognize the fundamental importance of the missions and supporting our brothers and sisters in those areas of our world where the Church is young and growing”.  After the speech, there was an air of excitement as the Pope greeted each one of us personally, starting with the Bishops naturally.  When I was in line to shake the Pope’s hands, behind about ten National Directors, the man in charge told me not to say anything to speed up the occasion.  Instead, when the time came, I said to Pope Leo, holding up four fingers; “Your Holiness, it’s been nearly forty years since a Pope came to our shores.  Please come and visit New Zealand…..”.  If he comes to New Zealand, I am going to claim the credit!

We received a Rosary gift each, but the Pontificate is still new, and so the Rosary still had Pope Francis’ insignia!   Maybe next year, I will have another encounter, and a new pair with a new insignia.   Last year I ‘auctioned’ the same rosary for funds towards the mission, raising a four-figure sum!

The events in the Eternal City in my last forty-eight hours, from dealing with the things of our broken world to the blessing of meeting Christ’s Vicar on earth, all came with the feeling that somehow, amid all that happened, time stood still.  Perhaps that is why Rome is called the Eternal City.

Now, for cleansing the fire of seven long days of work…..!  Welcome to Rome indeed!

Fr Michael Pui

25th May 2025