ManAboutWorld’s peripatetic Global Correspondent Mike Luongo visited Italy this week stopping in at the Vatican to watch Pope Francis deliver his first midnight mass. He took this picture and filed this report.
I had met the current Pope Francis while he was Archbishop Jorge Bergolgio in Buenos Aires I went to take pictures at midnight mass in Catedral Metropolitana. After mass it was easy to shake hands and say hello. This year, I went to Rome for his first midnight mass as Pope.
I think regardless of one’s religion, visiting the Vatican is a special experience, and to be there for midnight mass is especially so. The sounds of the singing, this time in eight languages, reverberate in the grand dome above the altar. It was a long ceremony, but Rome during Christmas, even if it’s a cold and damp time of year, is something every traveler should try to experience.
And so he might be a different man in a different city, the Pope is now in charge of all Catholics, but I see him as I saw him then: at the altar, baby Jesus in hand, blessing his now larger flock, wishing us all a Merry Christmas.
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