Attending the pope’s canonization Mass was like going to the “Catholic Super Bowl” for local resident Donna Guerra Howe.
That’s how she described her experience at the Mass on Sept. 23, followed by her visit the following day to Central Park for Pope Francis’ procession through Central Park.
Howe said people came “from all walks of life” in making up the 25,000 people who attended the service.
There were Franciscan seminarians chanting in a circle and singing. One lady next to Howe at the Mass held a sign saying “San Francisco Giants (picture of a heart) the pope.” And there were bathrooms everywhere, she said.
“I tell people it was actually like going to the Catholic Super Bowl,” Howe said. “It was just exciting. The people were phenomenal.”
She was there along with some others from the Monterey Diocese for the canonization of Juniperro Serra, whose roots trace to the Carmel area where he is buried. That part of the Mass actually lasted only about 10 minutes, she said. She said someone brought up pieces of Serra’s bones at some point.
That night, she had dinner with Father Heibar Castañeda from her church, Immaculate Conception in Tres Pinos, and other priests at the hotel.
“Everybody was just one big happy family,” she said.
Particularly evident in Washington and New York City was the level of security, she said. There were black vehicles and men in black suits everywhere. She had to clear security similarly to an experience at the airport. One guy showed a ticket with the wrong day.
“They were all over him,” she said.
Riding by in the highly secured Pope Mobile, Pope Francis was “really out there” for people to see.
“He was truly out there,” Howe said. “He’d stop and pick up a kid and bless somebody or do whatever.”
