a blog entry from Frank Graff (one of our reporters) who was in DC covering the pope...this is so awesome!! i wish i was there!


"Some quick notes at the end of the papal mass:

I didn’t see a dry eye anywhere around when Placido Domingo sang Panis Angelicus. When he finished singing he knelt in front of the Pope.

The roar of the crowd was amazing when the Popemobile entered and circled the stadium. If it was during a baseball game, the way the cheers circled the stadium in front of the Pope, you’d think people were doing the wave.

The procession with the Pope entered the stadium for the mass from the Nationals dugout. I keptwanting to hear the announcer say: “now batting…”

Heard from a teenager as she left… “I’m on such a God and Jesus high right now”

There aren’t enough adjectives to describe how people told me they felt after the Mass.
Awesome, incredible, amazing, uplifted, blessed, don’t the do justice to what you saw on people’s faces.

The lines at the souvenir stands were longer than the lines for the bathroom.
Best sellers: rosaries, pope t-shirts, photos of the pope. Nobody is buying the black, property of Benedict XVI athletic look alike shirts.

The guy standing next to me brought a disposable camera. You heard a loud click when he snapped the photo, then the grinding crank sound when he wound the camera to the next shot. You just don’t hear that anymore.

I’m a lector at my parish. I also sing in the choir. As I was watching and listening to the people read and sing during the mass, I can’t imagine how nervous they were, but they did great.
Frank Graff — April 17, 2008?"