On Thursday evening, October 11, I joined about 40,000 people in St Peter's Square. This evening marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II and the evening on the day on which the current Year of Faith began.
50 years ago, Catholic Action in Italy organized an evening procession that began at Castel St Angelo and made it's way down the Via della Conciliazione into St Peter's Square. Thousand of people carrying candles acknowledging the momentous event that Vatican II was. That night, John XXIII welcomed the people in the square with an incredibly heartfelt, paternal, and poetic impromptu speech.
50 years later, Catholic Action organized the same thing. It was an incredible experience joinging 40,000 other candle holding people of all ages there to commemorate one event (Vatican II) and celebrate another (the Year of Faith). We sang, we prayed, we saw Pope John XXIII's speach from 50 years ago on the jumbotrons, we saw an interview with his secretary (90 years old now) recalling the events of that night 50 years ago and what led up to Pope John delivering that famous speech, and Pope Benedict appeared at his window in the papal apartment to speak and to give us his blessing.
Here are some pictures from the other night. Enjoy!
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One of many families that we saw the other night. It was wonderful seeing so many children with their parents. It reminded me of the times when I was a child when me and my family went down Sunset Blvd in Hollywood in process to Blessed Sacrament Church. |
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One of the Junior professed sisters from Korea who recently came to study. |
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You can get an idea of the size of the crowd from this photo. Despite the immense number of people who were there--every inch was occupied--there was no pushing or shoving whatsoever. |
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A shot of one of the jumbotrons, with St Peter's in the foreground. |
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What I would do with a telephoto lens. This little white dot in the darkness is His Holiness,
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And for the finale, here's a little video of the crowd.
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