A Bird’s Eye View of the Election of Pope Francis

Pope Francis appears on the loggia on St. Peter's Basilica shortly after his election. March 13, 2013. Photo by Gregorio Borgia

Dear Blog Readers — We have a Pope.  Pope Francis, previously Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina.  Now you all may be wondering what happened to me. I was filling you in on this story all along and then we got a new Pope and then – poof – I disappeared.  All I can say is that I was working non-stop, around the clock barely able to get my work done for AP Television, so not much time for tweeting and  blogging.  So I won’t give you the news, and I won’t give you the analysis, I will just give you my version of events.

For starters, like most of the journalists covering the Vatican, I got it wrong.  I didn’t think Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires had a chance.  When he resigned, Pope Benedict XVI said that he no longer had the “physical strength and vigor” to do the job.  I assumed that the Cardinals would choose someone younger than the 76-year-old Archbishop of Buenos Aires.  The past week as we filmed  the Cardinals walking into the General Congregation meetings at the Vatican, we didn’t concentrate on getting a shot of him or trying to get a comment from him.  I remember him last Friday morning walking into the meetings past a huge crowd of cameras and photographers completely ignoring him. My compliments though to my colleague Samira Becirovic in London who had the forethought to make sure we had a full three and half minute video edit and story prepared on Bergoglio.  Brava Samira!

On Monday I had set an appointment for a coffee mid-afternoon at the Vatican with the spokesman for Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan.  Most Vatican experts were reporting that he was a front-runner and many of them,  with solid sources in the College of Cardinals, said Scola had already a guaranteed 40 votes.   At 11:30am on Monday, the day before the Conclave was to start, I received a text message from Scola’s spokesman saying he was catching a train back to Milan and he could not meet me for a coffee.  I wrote back saying “you are leaving before the Conclave?” Then assuming he would be coming right back down to Rome, I urged him to call me any time in the week for the coffee.  He wrote back very tersely, “Yes, but I will be staying in Milan, I am also sorry. Have a good day.”

Now if I had been reading the tea leaves correctly, or had been a magazine writer or an investigative journalist or someone with a little more time, I would have jumped all over that hint.  Instead, I had a million things to cover, Cardinals to chase, analysts to interview, so besides mentioning this strange departure to a colleague, I let it go.

On Tuesday  evening we had a spectacularly black, first round of smoke.  After the last Papal election when the smoke was decidedly grey, the Vatican must have done something special to get it right. The smoke was so thick and black we were all worried that they must have blackened Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel.  The Vatican spokesman reassured us all that this was not the case.

On Wednesday, again at lunch time we got the big black puffs. It was a rainy, cold miserable day and it was hard for all of us to spend so much time outside in St. Peter’s Square.

AP has occupied the whole top floor of the Agostinian building on the left of St. Peter’s Square (for a photo from the roof, see my blog post “Mudslinging at the Vatican“) and AP Television and AP photos were all shoved in a very cramped room.

Around 5pm we had several teams in the Square (Paolo Lucariello,  Pietro De Cristofaro, Giulia Saudelli, Luigi Navarra and Francesco Sportelli) plus people to edit and write cramped in our room (Paolo Santalucia, Fulvio Paolocci and me), and others back at the bureau to handle the live pictures from Vatican TV (with Maria Grazia Murru and Chris Slaney in charge).  My job was to go back and forth from the square, getting material from the crews, doing interviews and returning to the cramped room to help with editing and writing.

There was about an hour in there when we were all getting silly and slap-happy.  The rain was pouring down in the square and the crowd was getting larger, all eyes were fixed on the chimney, but no smoke.  AP photos had set up a system where they had photographers placed around the square and on the Colonnade and the photos were filed automatically back to computers in the room at the Agostinians for editing.

The view from the Colonnade of Umbrellas in St. Peter's Square as crowd waits for smoke. March 13, 2013 Photo by Andrew Medichini

As we waited, AP photo editors Tony Hicks and Denis Paquin kindly passed me some photos AP was not using from the photographers around the square for tweeting and blogging.  We all got completely silly over the seagull that perched itself on the chimney, unaware that he was being broadcast around the globe with millions of people fixated on him.  AP even wrote a brief story — “smoke watching becomes bird-watching at the Vatican.”  Down in the square, my colleagues interviewed the faithful on the seagull, “it’s the Holy spirit,” said one person, “the seagull is an omen,” said another.

A seagull on the chimney on the Sistine Chapel above St. Peter's Square. March 13, 2013. Photo by Gregorio Borgia

Finally the moment came– a clear puff followed by a plume of distinctly white smoke – it was 7:06pm.  I grabbed my umbrella and charged down to the square, but people were running from all directions towards the square and police had blocked the side entrances, and this time I had trouble getting through.  I had to shove and push to get to my colleagues who were interviewing people in the square and who had filmed the smoke.  I gathered the material, did a quick report for AP radio from the Square, shoved my way back out, left the material with my colleagues to edit and then struggled to make it back to my colleague, cameraman Paolo Lucariello, in position at the obelisk in the center of the Square.

I finally got there and stood waiting next to Paolo.  It was packed and the crowd had shoved its way into the press area.  The rain had stopped, but it was wet and cold.  The air was charged, people were chanting and singing.   I could see American, Brazilian, Albanian, and German flags.  Later I noticed there were a couple Argentinian flags too.

The wait seemed interminable, and having wet, cold feet didn’t help.  The crowd of cameraman and photographers around me joked about how the new Pope was having a panic attack, how the clothes didn’t fit, how he was going to make all the Cardinals go back into the Sistine Chapel and start all over again.
I called home to make sure my kids were watching on TV.  My daughter Chiara told me, “Yes, we are watching but we all know already it is going to be Scola.”  I hung up and told the cold, anxious, giddy group around me, “my daughter says it is going to be Scola.”
“Yeah, well how does she know?” said one cameraman.  “A Swiss Guard told her.”  I answered.  “Hey, a Swiss Guard told her daughter it’s Scola!”  The cameraman announced and the photographers and cameramen started repeating it to each other as though it might actually be true.  “Stop!  I am just joking!”  I laughed.

I tried to do some Tweets and to call in to AP Radio in Washington but by that time the phone lines were no longer working in St. Peter’s Square.

At 8:12 pm the Cardinal proto-deacon emerged on the Loggia.  In front of me, what had earlier been a sea of umbrellas turned into a sea of cellphone and Ipad display screens as hundreds of thousands of people lifted up their phones to get a picture of the new Pope.

A sea of cell phone displays go up as new Pope emerges in St. Peter's Square. March 13, 2013 Photo by Trisha Thomas

The Proto Deacon said in Latin:

Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum;
habemus Papam;
Eminentissium ac Reverendissium Dominum,
Dominum Georgium Marium
Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Bergoglio
Qui sibi nomen imposuit Franciscum.

Of all that, the only words that mattered to me were “Habemus Papem” – We have a Pope, and the word “Bergoglio”.  I was floored.  The first Pope from Latin America, the Cardinal from Argentina.

Time seemed to slow again, what was taking so long?  And then at 8:24 pm he emerged walking slowly behind a cross onto the loggia.

The first thing I noticed was that he was not wearing the red silk cape on top of his white vestments unlike the first appearance of Benedict XVI (see my blog post “The Election of Pope Benedict XVI- A Mamma’s View.”)

The first word the new Pope Francis said was “Buonasera” (Good evening).  It was so casual, so human, so normal.  I started to like him.  He then went on, “You know the duty of the conclave was to give Rome a bishop. It seems that my brother cardinals picked him from almost the end of the earth. But here we are.”

He then went on to say a prayer for Benedict XVI, and then led the crowd in reciting the “Our Father” the “Hail Mary” and the “Gloria”.  The next day, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston was nearly in tears of emotion as he described to reporters standing at the window in St. Peter’s Basilica with the others Cardinals and seeing this mass of people reciting these simple prayers.

Then before giving his blessing to the crowd, Pope Francis did something that surprised me.  He asked the crowd to do him “a favor”.  He asked the crowd to  pray to the Lord to bless him in silence and then he bent down before all of us.  The square was silent as we stared at the top of his head bent before us on the loggia.  That was the best moment for me.  A sign of humility that I think will mark this papacy.

When he turned to go back inside, we all kicked back into high-gear.  Interviews in the square with the crowd, find the Argentinians in the Square, get the analyst on camera, find the Vatican officials, etc etc.  Full speed ahead.  At 10:30pm I was back up in our room editing and writing a story as my colleagues all worked frantically near me.  As I cut the video and wrote the words, I suddenly felt like I had run straight into a wall.  I kept on working.  I knew what it was.  Since moments after Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation of February 11th, I had been working non-stop.  The past few days were intense work running around at the Vatican, and on top of that I had just spent hours standing outside in the rain and cold and I hadn’t eaten anything since a small sandwich at lunch.  I looked up from my computer and glanced around.  Several of my colleagues, especially those who had been working out in the square, seemed to be in similar states of exhaustion.  Paolo Santalucia, who was coordinating the Vatican operation for AP Television, figured it out and rushed out the door coming back shortly with sandwiches, slices of pizza, and little cakes stuffed with nutella. The food was snarfed down in a matter of moments and we were all charged up again.

Interestingly, journalists deal with a strange combination of exhilaration, exhaustion and adrenalin in historic or breaking news moments like this.  Later, when I got home at midnight, I charged into the bedroom to tell my husband all about it.  He rolled over and said, “I really want to know everything, but tell me at breakfast.”  So I went into the kitchen, poured myself a glass of wine and then I cleaned the whole kitchen.  Yes, I loaded the dishwasher, put away the leftover food and washed pots and pans.  I was so hyped up I couldn’t sit down, and I figured that I wouldn’t want to find all that mess in the morning when I had to go back to the Vatican.  My colleague Paolo Santalucia wrote a lovely email to all of the AP Television Vatican team at 3am covering us all with compliments on our work. He couldn’t sleep either and perhaps used his time better.  It was nice for all of us who had to drag our tired tails back to the Vatican Thursday morning at dawn to have an encouraging, thoughtful email to read.

Early the next morning, as I was getting out of a taxi at the Vatican, I ran into Father Thomas Rosica, the assistant Vatican spokesman. I rushed over to him and begged him to give me an interview about Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio.  Rosica, who had also gotten very little sleep, recounted to me how last Sunday — three days before the Papal election, he had left the Vatican walking towards the center of Rome with his friend Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Buenos Aires. Bergoglio was headed back to the Casa del Clero  (a residence for clergy in Rome) where he was staying.  As they neared Piazza Navona and were about to part ways, Father Rosica said he turned to Bergoglio and said, “Padre, are you nervous?”  Rosica said Bergoglio looked at him and said, “Yes, pray for me.”

Perhaps Bergoglio already knew on Sunday.

A nun with some sharp elbows proudly displays her historic edition of the Osservatore Romano with photo of Pope Francis. March 14, 2013 Freeze Frame of video shot by AP Cameraman Gianfranco Stara.

Yesterday morning was a busy one at the Vatican.  AP Television Cameraman Gianfranco Stara caught the mob scene at the newsstand as crowds of priests, seminarians, nuns and others pushed and shoved to get their copy of the historic edition of the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano with Pope Francis on its cover.  The souvenir shops around the Vatican were already filling up with tacky Pope Francis rosaries and calendars.

I felt lucky to bump into one of the best Jesuit Vatican analysts I know, Father Thomas Reese, author of “Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church”.  Reese served for seven years as editor-in-Chief of the Catholic Magazine “America” but then was removed by his superiors after they got pressure from the  Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – then being run by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (future Pope Ben XVI) because of Reese’s editorial stance on priestly celibacy and ordination of women.

Father Reese explained to me that we are not going to see any change with Pope Francis on the positions of the church on questions such as priestly celibacy and ordination of women but he did think that Pope Francis will focus the attention of the church on the poor.  He also indicated that Pope Francis will reject some of the regal aspects of the papacy that were embraced by his predecessor.

Reese told me, “He is a man who lives a very simple lifestyle. He takes the vow of poverty very seriously, he refused to live in the bishops palace, he moved to a very simple apartment, cooked his own meals and he didn’t want the chauffeured driven limousine that the bishop normally had, he takes the bus to work, and so this a very different kind of Pope, and if he brings that same desire for a simple lifestyle to the Papal court, I think they are all going to be in shock, this may not be a man who wants to wear silk and furs.”

Ok, no silk and furs for Pope Francis!!  And indeed I think the “papal court” may be shocked by a little more than the attire of the new Pope.  From his homily yesterday in the Sistine Chapel it sounds like Pope Francis is not going to have much tolerance for shenanigans in the Vatican Curia.

Later in the day, I was sent over to the North American College, where the American Cardinals are staying to go to a briefing Cardinal Sean O’Malley was holding.  My cameraman and I were stunned when we saw a man in a Irish cap and a white baseball jacket laughing and joking as he headed down the road.  It was Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York!  We stopped him and he enthusiastically recounted to us, and those with him, his impressions of the Conclave.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York heads out for a walk in Rome the day after the Conclave that elected Pope Francis. March 14, 2013. Freeze frame of video shot by Gianfranco Stara.

He said the Conclave gave him, “a great sense of joy and peace and resignation,  just sort of a sense that God’s gotten us through this, and he provides for his church again. It was magnificent.”

Then I asked him about something I heard of the new Pope refusing the Papal car after the election.  Dolan gave me his version of events,

“We walked out of the Sistine Chapel and there was the car, which I guess hadn’t been used in about 12 days, and I thought “well we are back to normal” and they have the little pullmans to take us to Saint Martha’s, and he got on that!  He said, “oh well, that’s ok, I will go with the Cardinals.  Wasn’t that beautiful?”

Inside the North American College Cardinal O’Malley appeared back in his “Cappuccino Cardinal” habit. (see blog post “My Cappuccino Cardinal“)  He explained to a small group of reporters his friendship with the new Pope and some of his feelings during the event.   He told us, ” I had lunch with him yesterday before the vote, and of course at that point he seemed very weighed down by what was happening but last night I think there was a peace in his heart, that God’s will had been accomplished in his life. But he is very approachable, very friendly he has a good sense of humor, he is very quick and a joy to be with. ”

O’Malley explained that age was a consideration in the choice but that other considerations weighed more heavily, including the fact that the new Pope comes from Latin America, “coming out of Latin America where there is such a contrast between rich and poor and so many very grave social problems, here is a man very much impassioned by a desire to make the church present  to people in their suffering and to relieve the suffering of the poor and make them feel that it is their church.”

O’Malley said he was flattered by reports of him as a possible contender for the papacy but said that was not a life for him noting that the pope is a “prisoner in a museum” and earning a laugh from us journalists when he suggested that he hopes Pope Francis sometime might be able to sneak past the Swiss Guards, and the Gendarmes and go out and see a Tango performance.

I don’t think Pope Francis will be seeing any tango performances for a long time.

To conclude, today I am enjoying a nice day off.  Tomorrow the new Pope will be meeting with journalists in the morning and then maybe going to Castel Gandolfo to pay his respects to the former Pope in the afternoon,  Sunday he will say his first Angelus prayer at the Vatican, and on Tuesday there will be in inauguration ceremony.

37 thoughts on “A Bird’s Eye View of the Election of Pope Francis”

  1. Well, I would say you have a well-deserved day off, dear Trisha and I hope you do get a good rest. The running back and forth and the drizzly weather certainly makes one exhausted and the food in the newsroom is always welcome, no? I love the imagine of Cardinal Dolan in the Irish cap and baseball jacket. Brava to you for recognizing him out of his normal vestments. Papa Francesco’s focus on the poor and underprivileged is most welcome, but I do wish there was more of a reformer in him too.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      I certainly hope that Pope Francis will be a reformer. I am going to wait for a bit and see, but change comes very slowly at the Vatican. Thanks for being such a supportive blog reader, I always know when I read your comments that you can relate to me since you worked for a news agency too.

  2. Ciao Trisha,

    My, but to have been witness to this must have beem the thrill of a lifetime. Have you found that your coverage of the Vatican, the election of a Pope, Vatileaks and all, has shaken, strengthened or impacted your faith in any way?.

    Journalists, you good ones, walk a fine line between keeping it professional for us readers on the one hand and just processing what you see for your own lives on the other. You do such a good job of that, and I have so appreciated all of these transmissions from the front. Your writing has awakened in me a new curiosity about all that goes on behind the facade of the Vatican walls.

    We readers are aware that your blog posts take away from your time with your family, and we appreciate the sacrifice. Say thanks to Nico, Chiara, Caterina and Gustavo! And I was struck by your description of returning home from the high (so to speak) of Pope Picking and being brought back to earth with KP duty. Indeed it’s Deadlines, Diapers and La Dolce Vita all rolled up into one entity called The Life of the Mozzarella Mamma. Thanks amica, for the insider’s view.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you Adri — you ask a very interesting question that I have avoided touching on — my personal faith. Basically, the easy answer is that I try to keep it out of my work. I was born to two protestant parents in Boston, raised going periodically to a congregational church. When I got married it was Reverend Nancy Rockwell, who married me, much to the shock of my in-laws. Rev. Rockwell comments regularly on my blog and you can read her brilliant posts on Abiteintheapple.com
      Before I got married, my mother-in-law- insisted that I would raise my children Catholic– baptism, first communion and confirmation. At the time Rev. Rockwell advised me to go with the flow with the Catholic church — to learn, to absorb– to try to understand. She advised me not to take a protestant (or protesting) attitude towards Catholic faith but try to understand what are the elements in common and what are the differences. That was great adivce. Then covering the Vatican has been a constant education.
      Caterina has arrived eager for me to take her out to buy a new dress for a party tonight, and she definitely is not going to let me have deep enough thoughts to answer your question properly, so I will leave it for another time. Thank you for asking though, it is an excellent question.

  3. sorry to mark the following: he’s from Argentina and not Brazil. And the right spelling is “Habemus Papam”, not Papem …..

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you Luisa– you are not the only one to notice my glaring error writing Brazil instead of Argentina– I got several messages from colleagues and friends while I was picking my daughter up at school today. I’m sorry, I’m exhausted.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Yes, for many people, the choice to name himself after St. Francis of Assisi was a huge plus. A couple of other comments on that name. In Italian it is Francesco, and Francesco Totti just happens to be the beloved Captain of the AS Roma Football/soccer team. When a group in the crowd heard he had chosen the name Francesco they started doing the “francesco” stadium chant. It was really funny. And on a more serious note, in his briefing yesterday, Cardinal O’Malley said that Pope Francis clarified to all the Cardinals that he chose the name after St. Francis of Assisi and not Francis Javier who founded the Jesuit Society of Jesus.

  4. I have been eagerly waiting for the inside story, while following the news reports closely so thank you! The name Francis and the new Pope’s humility and concern for the poor are certainly welcome but then you come back to dealing with the sex crisis and reforming the Vatican, all of which have received little attention since the election.

    Get a good nights sleep because tomorrow it’s the governance problems of Italy you will need to be covering.

    Fantastic job thanks so much for bringing us inside this historic event.
    L/D

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thanks Dad — yes, you are right, there is so much more to talk about and to cover. Don’t even get me started on the Italian political situation. Today was the opening day of parliament — a great big stand-off. People are joking that maybe they should just get Pope Francis to run Italy as well as the Vatican since the Italian election didn’t result in a leader. I have not been covering the politics though for the moment, but I will eventually. Thanks for your support. Love, Trisha

  5. I’m from Milwaukee, Wisconsin which is where Cardinal Dolan served before going to NY, and wanted the folks who follow your blog to know, that Cardinal Dolan is the real deal. He is as outgoing as he appears and in every way what one would want as a church leader…at any level. He’s just a happy guy who loves what he does.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      I have to agree with you there Cecilia, Cardinal Dolan just bursts with energy, joy, and enthusiasm. He clearly loves life and loves what he does.

  6. First – I can’t even begin to imagine how busy and hectic your days are – you truly deserve the day off! Thank you so much for constantly updating Twitter and this blog in the midst of all the craziness!

    I was listening in to the live broadcast and when the Proto Deacon said: “Cardinal Bergoglio”, I was like: “WHO?!?” I had absolutely no idea who he was! I guess God works in mysterious ways! Like you, I was also floored by his request to the people at St. Peter’s Square. Not only that, he BOWED HIS HEAD and prayed right there! My goodness – he’s surely redefining humility! That said, I think WYD Rio2013 is going to be CRAZY! I wasn’t going to go, but now that the Pope hails from that part of the world, I’m seriously re-considering. We’ll see. I guess I can always fall back on the fact that you’ll be covering his trip and I’ll always get the updates that way, yes? :)

    Anyways, have a wonderful weekend and looking forward to the next blog post!

    Pauline

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you Pauline. If you want my opinion, you should definitely go to World Youth Day in Rio. I think it is going to be an incredible experience. I covered World Youth Day in Madrid and was amazed by the energy of the crowds, I imagine with a new Pope from Latin America the crowds will be doubled. Unfortunately, I only get to go on every other Pope trip on the Papal plane. AP Television switches off being pool with Reuters, and since we did the last trip, they get to do the next one. So I probably won’t be there…boo, hoo. Perhaps, I can convince AP to send me separately — I will start working on that proposal tomorrow.

  7. It must haev been amazing to have been there, and stll amazing to be there, to watch Francis begin his papacy. I think the idea of ten year papacies is very wise, it allows the pope to act with vigor, and then to depart and let a fresh man in.
    The justice issues are just beginning to emerge, and deserve a lot of investigative attention because of the church’s history of complicity with dictators. WW2 was an example of that. But people can change, and Francis may be a great leader for these times.
    It seems that the red, Dorthy-in-Oz shoes, are gone!!! That’s a good thing. And also, there does not seem to be a Padre Georg by his side, also I think a good thing, though he is going to need a team, and fast.
    If he is to help the poor, he must do more than pronounce them holy in their poverty, he must urge the governments of the world to help them. He does not seem to like to do this kind of speaking, so it is something to watch for, can he speak up to help, not just to bless?
    His years of being his own man in Argentina will help him in the Vatican, I think. May the Spirit speak to us, through him.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      So much to answer — and I have Caterina breathing down my neck to take her out to buy a new dress. So, let me just answer on the lighter stuff. Yes, the red shoes are gone. Pope Francis is going for simple black ones. According to the Italian newspapers, not only did he refuse the red cape with ermelline fur he told the Vatican usher “you can wear that”.
      As far as Padre Georg is concerned, he is very present and around. He is Prefect of the Papal Household and very much involved in preparations for the inauguration ceremony next Tuesday. Lots of us are really wondering how this is going to work with Georg shuttling between Popes.
      On the question of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio’s role in the years of dictatorship in Argentina, I am not going to touch that one now because I am not prepared to. Apparently it was discussed at length in the Vatican spokesman’s briefing today, but I wasn’t there since I am taking a day off. I will eventually address the question.

  8. There are so many interesting points about the happenings from your perspective but three in particular stand out. The first is the sea of cell phones taking pictures. It is such a sign of the times that everyone was trying to document it for posterity. Our culture has certainly changed from experiencing things with our sight and memories to documenting it electronically for repeated memory. I just find that so fascinating.

    Secondly, I think his humbled kneeling to the crowd is so interesting and hopefully telling. I am hoping that he continues in this fashion to focus on people and the poor (although am a bit frustrated by his less than enthusiastic stance on women etc… but as you and others say, it isn’t a change within the church doctrine).

    Thirdly, from a personal standpoint for you, it is truly amazing that in your lifetime you have been witness to this momentous occasion in our world’s history twice. Most would feel lucky to be there once and yet you have had a front row seat (quite literally) twice now. I am proud of my little sister!!

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you Gwen — you are right on all the above, and I do feel honored to have a front row seat on history twice. Love, Trisha

  9. . . so, now the focus will change from Ratzinger’s cover-ups of child abuse to Bergoglio’s collaboration with the military junta in Argentina and his ‘handing over’ of two Jesuits of revolutionary theology persuation for torture and murder. At best he was gutless in the face of fascism, unlike his contemporary in Chile. I don’t think there will be a revival in the standing of this institution or its corrupt board of management any time soon.

  10. I have to confess that instinctively I feel deeply suspicious of anyone so ostentatiously “humble” as this Argentine prelate seems to be.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Perhaps you are right to be. I think a lot of people have gotten caught up in a wave of enthusiasm and it is correct to question and investigate and search for the truth. I just saw him in person with thousands of other journalists and he does seem to be warm, friendly and humble — but that is just my first impression.

  11. We were with friends in San Front watching on the tv and the whole time I was thinking of you and how exciting it must be to be right in the thick of it all. We arrived in Italy on Monday and how exciting to be here for the election of the new Pope. ciao lisa x

  12. Great job, Trisha! When you get a moment, reead Yvonn Abraham in the Globe…she reflects my sentiments..and I know M.J. Sullivan personally…it is an honor to be her friend. Onward!

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you Penny. Pope Francis met with thousands of us journalists today at the Vatican. I enjoyed hearing his comments. He is much more relaxed and easy-going than Benedict XVI, and was quite funny in some moments. My friend Phoebe Natanson was one of the few journalist selected through a lottery to go up and meet him in person afterwards. She said he grabbed her hand and warmly told her “pray for me, pray for me.”

  13. Great impressions – thank you for all of your time and effort. I really don’t know how you do it!! My husband was so disappointed that none of the “pundits” or journalists commented on the seagull once we knew the new Pope was named Francis, since birds are a symbol of St. Francis of Assisi!

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you Bonnie — I didn’t know birds were a symbol of St. Francis of Assisi — I knew he was the Patron Saint of Animals, and one of the two Patron Saints of Italy (together with Caterina of Siena). Well now, the Seagull takes on an even deeper significance!

  14. Trisha,
    I watched the events unfold on my computer screen at work. I believe I was watching CNN. My coworkers and I were giddy with delight. It seemed like it took forever for the new Pope to come out. We too were joking that he may have been having some sort of wardrobe malfunction. And speaking of wardrobe. What were you wearing on that evening? I think I might have spotted you in the crowd. Were you wearing a short, dark (puffy) down jacket standing by a man with a sash of the Italian flag? Thanks for the eye-witness reporting! I think the conclave picked a winner! Love Papa Francis already.

    1. Trisha Thomas

      Thank you Sally! I like Pope Francis too! That’s so funny that you think you saw me in that massive crowd. That would be pretty amazing. I was wearing a longish, dark, puffy down coat, but for most of the time I think I would not have been very visible. I was standing near the obelisk, behind an AP cameraman who was not wearing a sash, and we had a big AP red and white striped umbrella over the camera. But right after the white smoke I did run around the square to get P2 Cards (the cards our cameramen record on) from other AP crews in the square and bring them up to someone on our roof-top to edit. During the Conclave we were keeping three crews in the square, one to stay focused on the chimney, one to stay focused on the faces watching the chimney to get immediate reactions, and one to go around the square interviewing people. It was so exciting to be there, I wish you could have been there too, but it sounds like you enjoyed watching it.

  15. ….OR maybe it was a long, dark, puffy down coat and you were just too busy to notice the man wearing the Italian flag sash……Don’t burst my bubble. I’ll just pretend it was you that I spotted amongst the crowd in St. Peter’s Square. You’re “one in a million, ” Trisha! :-)

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *