I remember.......
when the pope said a mass in the Phoenix park in Dublin, Ireland in 1979. I got up at about 5am and walked in the dark like a dream with loudspeakers set up to direct you like some kind of sci-fi movie to see him. And to get to where he celebrated mass among one million other Irish people. It was an amazing experience and is still a strong memory after all these years as I was a child and it moved me to be in the same place as one quarter of the population of Ireland at such an event, I still visit the place every time I go home, the cross that was built for the event.... As a lapsed Roman Catholic who is raising heathens :-) Pope John Paul was special to me and I cried when he died even though I did not know him personally....
Strangely the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the U.S. is reminding me of that. Even us lapsed Roman Catholics are moved by such things :-)
Joan