St Louisans who saw pope say experience was ‘awesome’

A good article in the St Louis Review:

Sacred moments and precious memories combined to make Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Washington, D.C., and New York April 15-20 a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many who made the trip from the archdiocese.

"Awesome" is the word several pilgrims used to describe their papal visit as they exited the bus upon its arrival at the Cardinal Rigali Center in Shrewsbury on April 21.

It had to be the event of a lifetime!

Mary Romine of St. Joseph Parish in Josephville, on the trip with her husband celebrating their upcoming 25th wedding anniversary, said "the archdiocese couldn’t have done a better job taking care of us as pilgrims. Msgr. (Henry) Breier and Father (Thomas) Keller are tremendous leaders, and everything went smooth as silk."

Two great priests here - and more in the article. I'll hear more of the wonderful details tomorrow when I talk to a couple of friends who made the trip on the bus with Msgr. Breier.

Father C. Eugene Morris, director of the archdiocesan Office of the Permanent Diaconate, received a personal blessing from Pope Benedict XVI and was one of the lucky few from St. Louis who got to hear the papal address to the General Assembly at the United Nations April 18....

At one point, he was about five feet away from him. "I called out ‘Holy Father’ in German. He turned to me, and he blessed me. It was an extremely powerful experience. He clearly radiated joy. He was just beyond himself happy. You could see it in his face. It’s hard to explain to people what that’s like. It was phenomenal, truly phenomenal."

Undoubtedly! What a blessing!

A wonderful report with far too many people to quote or acknowledge in this blog...A recommended read.