As I mentioned in our last post, Sue and I mis-timed our weekend away in Rome and ended up being there when the former Pope, John-Paull II was beatified. The city was heaving with people and the crowds in some places were oppresive. However, it was hard not to feel pleasure for the huge number of Poles who had come to see their country’s most famous son being honoured. They had travelled a long way and it was obvious that many of them had had very little sleep. The evening after the beatification ceremony, the streets around the Vatican were lined with Polish families all looking worn out and longing for the bus home!
While it was good to see the Poles, it was less pleasant to discover that we were sharing a city with Rober Mugabe, who somehow had evaded an EU travel ban and made his way to the ceremony.
However, what was most striking about the whole ceremony were the huge numbers of pictures of John-Paul. Pictures on lamp-posts, pictures on walls, pictures in the newspapers, pictures on tshirts and so it went on. The city was a riot of celebration for a dead Polish prelate – but there was hardly any mention of a living Galilean carpenter’s son.
Still no room at the inn, it would seem.