There's this photo...

...on the shelf in the living room at my parents' house of my Father at an indoor Papal audience when he was on cruise in the Med. He is reaching out to touch the Pope, they are just inches apart. We would never have seen that photo, but that week he went to visit Navy friends and they asked if he had been in Rome. They pulled out the paper and there he was on the front page!

Now as the Pope is dying I am sure that he is reaching out to him again.

When I was young we travelled to Israel. We stayed at the Jerusalem Hotel and our room was far from the rest of our pilgrimage group. We went through many thick glass doors to get there, down many corridors. Our room was breathtaking, the ceilings covered in mosaics. We found out the next morning that we were staying in part of the Papal suite of rooms. We were floored as were the folks in the rooms on either side who were also in the suite. I wanted to leave the Pope a note, but my parents gently explained that he wouldn't get it. Ah well, soon I'll be able to speak directly to the Pope.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him!