Before the Supreme Pontiff: A Humble Audience in the Vatican

A moment I'll never forget—meeting His Holiness Pope Leo XIV

It was a moment beyond imagining—an audience with the Holy Father himself, within the august walls of the Vatican. For an old street urchin from Brooklyn, it felt like something dreamt, not lived. I have never been one to grow star-struck, yet I confess I was struck dumb by the Pontiff’s serene majesty—an authority not derived from wealth or influence, but from grace. His quiet presence seemed to fill the room more completely than any global technocrat or financier ever could.

My friend John and I at the Vatican,
waiting for our audience with the Pope

In his presence, we felt both honored and unworthy. A handful of us—pilgrims, admirers, perhaps even fawning sycophants—stood before the Vicar of Christ, keenly aware that he had, only hours before, met with kings and ambassadors: His Majesty King Charles, Prime Minister Orbán, and others of global renown. What were we compared to such company? Yet he greeted us with the same gentle courtesy, exchanging small gifts and laughter as if no difference of station existed between us.

He blessed us and our sacramentals with paternal grace. I had hoped to speak to him regarding the suppression of the Tridentine Mass, a matter close to my heart, but in the moment I found myself silent—humbled by the weight of his office and the brevity of our time. Perhaps it was better so. Words, however sincere, could not have rivaled the witness of that same evening, when His Eminence Cardinal Burke offered the Traditional Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica before more than three thousand faithful.

Although I was attending a different pilgrimage Mass elsewhere at the time, I later learned how it moved hearts and inspired souls. Even from a distance, it seemed as if all of heaven bowed low. No audience, whether brief or grand, could surpass such a display of the Church’s timeless and transcendent beauty.

May the Holy Ghost continue to guide and strengthen the Successor of Peter in wisdom and charity, for the good of all the faithful. Vivat Papa!

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, November 5th, Feast of the Holy Relics