A Day in Assisi Covering Pope Francis

Dear Blog Readers — Here is a brief post on the Pope’s visit to Assisi.

Last Friday, October 4th,  Pope Francis made a whirlwind trip to the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, home of his namesake, Saint Francis of Assisi.

He came in a helicopter from the Vatican and arrived at 730 am and seemed to be in non-stop motion throughout the day. I woke up at 6am when I heard the crowd of faithful walking past my hotel and up to the Basilica. Over the course of the day, the Pope made 13 stops at various points around the town, starting off with a meeting with handicapped and disabled children before making his way towards the Basilica of St. Francis Assisi.

Saint Francis was born in Assisi in 1182 into the family of a wealthy cloth merchant. As a young man he dreamed of becoming a knight and took part in an attack on the hill town of Perugia where he was captured and held for a year. He became ill and returned to Assisi a weak and defeated young man.

In 1206 Francis had a vision in which God told him to “repair my church.” He began living as a hermit and caring for the poor. Unhappy with his behavior, Francis’ bourgeois father dragged him before the Bishop and in a moment that has gone down in the annals of church history, Francis shocked the bishop and his father by stripping off all his clothing, and giving away everything he owned to dedicate himself to God and the poor.

Francis was known for his simplicity, his humility, his caring for all leaving creatures from human beings to animals.  From his first words as Pope, it is clear that Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina would like to bring Catholic church closer to the values of his namesake, pulling away from wealth and power and moving closer to the needs of the sick and the poor.

Following his meeting with the children, the Pope went to the Sala Della Spogliazione (roughly translated: the room where he stripped off his clothes), there he delivered an off-the-cuff but clearly prepared speech. First he denounced the deaths at sea in Lampedusa (see blog post Into the Deep Blue Cemetery off Lampedusa) saying: “Nobody cares about many people who have to escape from the slavery of hunger, who escape searching for freedom and find death as happened yesterday in Lampedusa. Today is a day of tears.”

He went on to deliver a blistering a attack on what he said is “mondanita'” (roughly translated: worldliness) within the church, denouncing as “bakery Christians” those who cling to worldly wealth suggesting they “look good but suffer from vanity, pride and love of power”. He said that the Church and everyone should strip themselves of worldly wealth as St. Francis did so many centuries ago.

During the brief, impassioned talk I noticed that Pope Francis vacillated from being close to tears to almost angry.

The main event of the day was the Mass in the piazza in front of the Basilica. The day before the Pope arrived, I paid a quick visit to the Basilica and snapped (before any guards could stop me) this photo of the Cimabue Fresco of “Our Lady Enthroned and Saint Francis (1280). Obviously, I just took St. Francis who is standing humbly off in the corner. I don’t want to be disrespectful, but he does look a bit dorky with his giant feet and long toes, and perhaps some art history expert will be able to explain to me why he has three hands.

Inside the Basilica is a large throne, that I was told only a Pope can sit on. Pope Francis opted for the piazza outside and an altar made by local carpenters in the form of a TAU cross, a cross in the shape of a Capital letter T, and used by Franciscan Friars to symbolize peace.

During the Mass, as expected, the Pope spoke about peace saying, ““We can hear the shouts of those who are crying, suffering and dying because of violence, terrorism, war, in the Holy Land, so beloved by Francis, in Syria, in the whole Middle East, in the world.”

Following Mass, Pope Francis sat down to lunch with a group of poor people at a center run by the Catholic charitable organization Caritas. Vatican TV ran this image of a little boy showing the Pope his place at the table.

After lunch, the tone of the day seemed to change. Pope Francis visited the Church of San Ruffino where he was supposed to meet with the clergy but from what I could see place was packed with women and children. At one point he seemed to toss aside his prepared text and said, “You know what I always tell young couples, you can fight all you want, you can even throw plates at each other, but you never should end the day without making peace. Never.”

That line earned him a good laugh, and earned me quite a few re-tweets on twitter.

(Note: In the above photo you can see Domenico Giani, the head of the Pope’s security, standing behind the Pope and looking slightly tense.  All of us who cover the Vatican are worried about Giani these days.  This Pope is constantly throwing himself into crowds and reaching out for everything that people pass to him.  Giani and the others involved in the security often spend events passing babies to the Pope to be kissed.  Poor Giani has his hands full!!)

From there he went on to visit the Basilica of Santa Chiara (Saint Clare) and the Sisters of Saint Clare. Saint Clare was one of the first followers of Saint Francis and founded her own order known as the Poor Clares. The Pope met with the Sisters of the order and gave them another one of his interesting off-the-cuff speeches. He told them that he knew that monastic life is not easy, but that it should not be “purgatory”. He encouraged them to be “forgiving”, and “supportive” of each other. He urged them to avoid saying “I don’t want to speak badly about so and so BUT…”  He told them they must find happiness from within and not pretend to be happy. He said he doesn’t like seeing nuns with “flight attendant smiles”. He urged them to “smile from the heart.”

His next stop was the church of Saint Mary of the Angels where there is the small Porziuncula church inside, and it is there that Saint Francis died. Outside the church thousands of young people were waiting for a meeting with Pope Francis. He passed through the crowd hugging disabled children and blessing their parents. Young people stood up and asked the Pope questions about how to face their lives and difficulties. The Pope delivered a few answers before stopping and joking with the crowd that he had actually gotten the questions ahead of time so he wasn’t just giving answers off the top of his head.

My favorite Pope Francis comment at this meeting was when he said that when mothers come and complain to him that their 30-year-old sons are not getting married he tells them, “Stop Ironing their Shirts!” (@mozzarellamamma had a lot of re-tweet success with that one too!)

His final stop of the day was the “Tugurio” or shack where St. Francis of Assisi used to live.

After 12 hours in Assisi, the Pope took a helicopter back to Rome, and I stayed in Assisi and kept on working, editing together the powerful images of his visit. Around 8:30pm I made my way out of the press center, past the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, down the narrow, cobble-stoned street, dragging by rolling backpack with my computer, cables and papers and down to meet AP Cameraman Gianfranco. We were both exhausted and hungry so we went to a nearby restaurant where they had delicious bruscetta, toasted bread with fresh, green local olive oil.  I wondered if Saint Francis allowed himself the simple pleasure of eating that delicious olive oil on bread back in his day.