A Reporter’s Notebook Washington, D.C., – Tuesday, April 15
Blog
Andrews Air Force Base
Catholic students are chanting, shouting and waving Vatican flags as a high school band strikes up one tune after another.
Secret service agents stand along the tarmac, wires leading to their ears, looking for suspicious activity, while other agents, apparently off duty, pick the best spot from the stands to take photos.
Military officers and their families, who have traveled much of the world and seen their share of important events, sit behind the barriers in giddy anticipation.
The energy level is high at Andrews Air Force Base, yet the pope will not arrive for another three hours.
Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington stands before a section of the stands filled with students and their families and thanks them for coming and encourages them to welcome the Holy Father with gusto. “Don’t forget, when he gets out of that plane, he’s going to hear us!” he says. “God bless.”
When the landing does occur at 3:50 p.m., it is flawless and without warning.
“He’s here, he’s here!” the cry goes up from the stands and all eyes look to the runway. The shiny Alitalia Boeing 777, dubbed “Shepherd One,” comes in almost silently at a low angle and touches down without a bump or screech. At it slows and turns, a Vatican flag appears from one window in the cockpit and a U.S. flag from another window.
With military efficiency, the portable stairs are rolled to the three doors on the pilot’s side. The papal media members descend the steps and rush across the tarmac to a designated press pen. From the middle door comes the papal entourage of cardinals, bishops, priests and dignitaries. Then Pope Benedict XVI emerges from the door near the cockpit, garbed in immaculate white and beaming a fresh smile that signals love and life.
He stretches his arms wide and waves to the crowd, then descends the steps to meet the president, Mrs. Bush and their daughter Jenna.
Great things can happen when world leaders meet under the theme “Christ Our Hope.”
A German Viewpoint
At the air base was Tassilo J. Wanner, a 22-year-old German who is studying political science at Georgetown University’s graduate school. He is covering the pope’s trip for German Catholic news outlets. He grew up in the pope’s homeland area of Bavaria.
He said that Germans are very proud that a countryman has become pope, “though they won’t always tell you,” and that the pope has touched the lives of many young people, who are growing up in a very secular society in which religion plays a minor public role.
“I know many kids in Germany my age who are still looking for something,” Wanner said. “There’s a feeling with young people in Europe that there has to be something more to life than what we see. I think it is a good idea of the Holy Spirit to give us another European pope, to give us one more try to re-evangelize Europe.”
He added, “I think Germans are pretty happy that Benedict is not ‘the enforcer’ at the Congregation (for the Doctrine of the Faith) any more, but the pope who is pulling people together on basic issues such as love and hope. The media has been very good to him since he has become pope.”
Pope Benedict’s World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005 and his visit to Bavaria that same year “had a huge impact on the young people,” he said. “People consider the pope trustworthy and honest. He does not speak like a politician. He is just searching for the truth, and young people respond because they are looking for the same thing.”
An Officer and a Knight
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| Col. David Zorzi waits with Tina Jonas, chief financial officer for the Department of Defense, for the pope’s plane to land at Andrews Air Force Base. |
Air Force Col. David Zorzi, a Knight of Columbus with Cardinal O’Boyle Council 11302 in Washington, D.C., was in the stands in full military dress, with decorations filling his whole left chest area. He spoke proudly about becoming a Knight four years ago.
“The reason I joined the Knights was to give back to the community, and within the Catholic Church, what better way to give back than through the Knights,” he said. “Our council, under Grand Knight Mauro Farinelli, does a tremendous amount of outreach and charitable work for the people of D.C.”
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