Singing the pope to sleep

(Herald photo by Bill Howard)

Tonight was memorable as I ended up taking part in a procession from St. Malachy Church to the pope's residence at E. 72nd St. and Madison Ave. There, more than 1,000 people were lined up with candles, singing songs while waiting for the pope to arrive.

It was quite a scene. There were a ton of priests, brothers and nuns joining a nice mix of youth and adults in singing songs and chanting "Benedetto." The Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Renewal, Sisters of Life and many diocesan priests and seminarians were leading the way, with friars playing guitar and percussion. The Missionaries of Charity were there, as were Dominican Sisters and some others I didn't recognize.

I didn't see the pope get out of his ride and enter his residence somewhere around 9 p.m. It all happened so fast ... there was a huge wave of cheering that lasted about 10 minutes or so and then everyone milled around in excitement for another hour. It was funny to see nuns, priests and brothers running around like little kids. Some of them apparently got to meet the pope because after things were dying down a group of them emerged into the crowd, one nun in a full sprint along one side of the crowd slapping hands as she reached her crew. They were soon being pulled aside by television crews. My favorite moment came when, after the crowd dispersed, a group of about 20 nuns gathered and began singing beautiful, quiet songs for the pope... like they were singing lullabies. He was probably too far away to hear it being across the other side of Madison Ave., but I'd like to think he could hear it. I wish I had recorded it.

And so the crowd disperses and everyone is planning to get little sleep as security checks for the St. Patrick Mass and outside welcome group (which I was blessed to get a ticket for) are at 6 a.m. I'm meeting my faction of the outside welcome group at St. Malachy at 5:30 a.m. for an early morning breakfast. I've been to NYC many times, but probably the most New York thing I've ever done took place after the vigil. My seminarian friend, Mark, was put in charge by the pastor of St. Malachy of buying seven dozen bagels for the gathering tomorrow morning. So Mark, his friend Alex, his college friend Dan (who lives in Denver) and I took a cab to H&H Bagels on Broadway and 78th. What an awesome place. So we walked out with two huge paper bags (felt like they weighed 30 pounds each) of bagels for tomorrow.