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1 foresaw that this would happen.... ’
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VATICAN CITY (NC) - “I
foresaw that this would
happen,” said an elderly cousin
of Pope John Paul I after she
assisted at the pope’s inaugural
Mass.
Sylvia Tancon, who lives in
the pope’s home town of Canale
d’Agordo in northern Italy, said
she foresaw it “as soon as he
began to rise” after his
ordination to the priesthood.
Her grandfather and the
pope’s grandfather were
brothers, she said, and she knew
the pope’s family since before he
was born.
The ceremony
‘splendid,” she said.
was
“It was unimaginable for us
from Belluno,” said another
woman from Canale d’Agordo,
using the name of the pope’s
native diocese.
“It was inexpressible,” said
Mother Assumpta Long, prioress
general of the St. Cecilia
congregation of Dominican
Sisters from Nashville, Tenn.
She added: “There is no way
anywhere else that you can get
the sense of the church as you
can here.”
“There’s a sense of
universality,” said Dominican
Sister Marie Williams, also from
Nashville.
The election of Pope John
Paul was a surprise to all, Mother
Assumpta said. She said that
that morning they had been in
St. Peter’s Basilica and had met
Msgr. Virgilio Noe, papal master
of ceremonies. “He said,”
Mother Assumpta recalled, “that
this morning the Holy Father
told him to ask Sisters to pray
for him. We were the first Sisters
Msgr. Noe met. That meant a lot
to me.”
The ceremony was “very
beautiful,” said Giustino
d’Auria, a teenager from
Calabria in southern Italy. “I
like it when people are united.
The faith still exists today,” he
said after seeing the hundreds of
thousands in St. Peter’s Square.
NOT EVEN LISTED - A betting
shop in London lists the favorites
and the odds. But Cardinal Luciani
of Venice did not even make the
list. The old Roman adage once
again held true: “He who enters
the Conclave as Pope, emerges as
Cardinal.”
“We were very much
impressed and thrilled,” said
William Godfrey of West
Virginia, who is stationed with
the U.S. Army in Frankfurt,
West Germany. He and his wife
were part of a group of 48 who
came from Frankfurt for the
Mass with Father Albert J.
Hartlage, an Army chaplain from
the Louisville (Ky.) Archdiocese.
Barbara Shea, a Bostonian
who was also with the Frankfurt
group, called the Mass
“breath-taking.”
Mrs. Godfrey said she had
been reading about the new
pope. “I think the cardinals
made a wise choice.”
“He seems to be quite
practical,” Miss Shea said.
Another group of Americans
was sitting on the barricades
chatting as the crowd drifted out
of the square.
The ceremony was “fantastic,
something I’ll never forget as
long as I live,” said Robin Petty,
from Los Angeles, Calif., who
was in Rome on leave from
construction work in Saudi
Arabia.
“It’s probably the biggest
historical thing that’s ever going
to happen to me in my life,”
said his wife, Judy.
Bill Hilton, from Cleveland,
Ohio, said he had been in northern
Europe and had come to Rome
for the Mass. “I was
disappointed that this pope did
away with some of the pomp
and ceremony,” said Hilton, a
Catholic.
“I think he’ll be similar to
Pope John. I’m afraid he may do
away with some of the traditions
that make the Catholic Church
Catholic.”
Petty, a non-Cathoiic, said: “I
think the church realizes - and
especially this pope -- that it’s
coming down to the wire for the
church, and Christianity and the
world. This pope seems set to
work with the people and not
have the church feel segregated
from the average person.
CARDINALS PAY OBEDIENCE -- cardinal knelt before him, the pontiff leaned
Cardinals line up to greet newly installed over to grasp their hands in both of his and
Pope John Paul I on September 3 on the exchange with each the “kiss of peace.” He
steps of St. Peter’s Bascilica. Later, as each then chatted informally with each cardinal.
RECEIVING THE PALLIUM - Cardinal Pericle Felici
places a pallium, a white wool band embroidered with
black crosses representing the pope’s role as Patriarch of
the West and the fullness of his espicopal power, on the
shoulders of Pope John Paul I.