NORTH ANDOVER — A Merrimack College group answered when Pope Leo XIV unexpectedly called upon it during a March pilgrimage to Italy.
The annual trip, called “Pellegrinaggio,” has undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators and other Augustinians pilgriming to Italy each spring. Its purpose is to walk the footsteps of Saint Augustine and seek the Augustinian community.
Leading up to the journey, students asked if there was a chance they’d be able to see the pope, and the response was that it was unlikely due to the pope’s busy schedule in his first year as pontificate, Frances “Dorie” Mansen, Merrimack College’s associate vice president for mission and ministry and holistic formation, said.
Near the end of the nine-day trip, the group attended a celebratory dinner in Rome on March 11.
The Rev. Joseph Farrell, the prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine, stopped by the dinner to say hello. At the end of dinner, he pulled aside the Rev. Raymond Dlugos, Merrimack College’s vice president for mission and ministry, and gave him an unexpected blessing.
Earlier in the day, the pope stopped his popemobile to speak with Farrell, saying how he heard the college was “in town.” He asked for Farrell to arrange for him to meet the students and staff.
When Dlugos returned to the group, he said the pope requested to meet with them after lunch the next day.
“The room erupted with cheers, some tears of joy and a lot of questions,” Mansen said.
For one, the students on the trip were told to bring only comfortable clothing and wanted to know what to wear to see the pope. Mansen, on her fifth pilgrimage with the college, said everyone had sneakers and the students were told just to wear something nice.
The group started the next day with things that, in and of themselves, would be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. The group went to Mass in the catacombs underneath S. Peter’s Basilica, some students climbed its dome and later toured the excavations below Saint Peter’s Square where the bones of Saint Peter are kept.
But around lunchtime, what was earlier considered unlikely became a reality.
“All of us understood the significance of the day and we experienced a sense of gratitude and blessing from our meeting with Pope Leo,” Mansen said.
They headed across the street to the Order of St. Augustine General Curia that sits outside the Vatican walls.
Inside, the pope was ready to meet them.
Freshman Anthony Olea, 19, said everyone reviewed how to properly address the pope as “Your Holiness” before entering the chapel to meet him. He recalled sitting in a pew waiting for the pope’s arrival, and being in awe when he entered the room.
“I am thinking to myself, ‘The most influential figure to my religion is standing in the same room as me,’” Olea said. “I had no other thoughts in my head other than ‘He is in the room with me right now and it doesn’t feel real.’”
The pope, who met with the group for about 15 minutes in the curia’s chapel, led them in prayer before shaking hands with all the students.
“Bearers of peace”
Olea was carrying hats with Merrimack College’s insignia to gift people he met during the trip. He reached into his bag and held it in his hands behind his back before standing in front of Pope Leo. Olea remembered a smile coming across his face as he introduced himself, shook the pope’s hand and presented the hat as a gift from the whole group.
The moment was special to him, acting as the face of his college. The freshman said he felt the pope knew he was “extremely nervous as well as ecstatic,” but made him feel comfortable.
Olea was overcome with emotion after the experience. He called his mother, and broke into tears.
The encounter with the pope meant plenty to him in his faith and life’s journey, he said, and felt he came full circle as a Catholic.
Olea added how he felt gratitude toward his parents. He was raised Catholic, but found his way back into his faith a few years ago.
“I owe it all to my parents and especially my mom,” Olea said. “Growing up, she was the biggest teacher and influence on me and my faith and spiritual journey. Without her, I wouldn’t have been in the position I was in to meet the pope.”
Another student connected about her hometown in Michigan with Pope Leo, who knew exactly where she was talking about, Mansen said.
“With this exalted figure of authority, he is still very much a gentle and kind human being,” Mansen said about the pope’s down-to-earth conversations with members of the group. “He’s just so human.”
The pope gave the Merrimack College audience a papal blessing and a message to send back to the United States and the college. His message was simple: Be the bearers of peace in a divided world.
Mansen said she was impressed by his warmth and ability to convey a serious message at the same time. He addressed the audience, telling them he wanted to talk to them about what was going on in the world.
“We all sat back and knew we were receiving a very important message,” she said.
After meeting the pope, Mansen called her husband and told him she believed she was just in the presence of a saint.
“That was someone living out their human mission with such grace and humility,” she said. “That’s what we’re all called to be, and he’s doing it.”