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Articles
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| ‘You just need a lot of communion cups’ |
VOICE writes, "BY CAROL BUCKLEY
If the students at the Hill’s St. Peter’s Interparish School were any indication of the level of local enthusiasm, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit was predestined to go swimmingly.
Although the school is blocks from Nationals Park, most St. Peter’s students were stuck inside during the actual event watching it live on TV, but they still had plenty of ideas on how last Thursday’s Mass could have been improved.
“I would like it if after he got done blessing everybody, he would play some baseball,” said fifth-grader Eric Romero.
His classmate Kyle Jones agreed: “I think he should be the pitcher.” Jones also supplied the solution when other students doubted the practicality of providing Eucharist for a stadium of people. “You just need a lot of communion cups,” Jones said.
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Jordan Dickerson, a sixth-grader, said that the pope occupied a level of celebrity unparalleled by regular famous people. “Other people would choose to meet the president or something over the pope, but since we’re in the church we have to choose the pope over, like, Michael Jordan.”
The fifth- and sixth-graders showed an understanding of the significance of Pope Benedict’s visit at a level far beyond baseball and Eucharistic logistics.
Sixth-grader Luke Faletti cited the biblical passage that marks the establishment of the church with the apostle Peter as its foundation. And he added, the pope is “the most important person in the whole church.”
Fifth-grader Maura Reilly agreed that Faletti’s cited text would have been appropriate for last Thursday’s Mass and said she would have chosen to read the apostle Peter passage if she had gotten to participate in the Mass.
Younger students at St. Peter’s were equally excited for the papal visit, even if they did not have an equally firm grasp of the significance behind it all.
First-grader Joseph Holliday was looking forward to attending the stadium Mass with his brother. “I’m excited because I’ve never seen a pope before,” he said.
His classmate Helena Tanner chimed in: “Because he’s the pope of the church.”
“…And the father of the church,” Holliday continued.
Tanner wasn’t finished: “… and the father of the Catholics, and the father of the Earth.”
“The earthly father,” Holliday concluded triumphantly, and Tanner agreed that sounded right.
“Earthly father” therefore accompanied “pope” in much of the conversation that followed. When asked what they would say to the pope if they had the chance, Holliday did not only the asking, but the answering, too.
“I would ask if he liked being the pope, being the earthly father? Of course he does. I don’t think it’s that hard to be the earthly father.”
Tanner felt restricted in her conversational choices. “I couldn’t tell him that he has nice hair because he wears a miter.”
All in all, however, the students decided being a pope is a good thing. You can play games with your guardian angel (Tanner), ride around in a white limousine (Holliday), contemplate your coat of arms that was designed as many as 20 years ago (Holliday), enjoy your favorite foods of bread and wine (Tanner), and be proud of the papal lineage that dates to Peter, Jesus’ apostle who lived, according to 6-year-old Joseph Holliday, “back in the day.”
Activities related to the papal visit began weeks ago with a prayer service at which a visiting priest, who led prayers for a successful visit, quizzed students about Benedict and the role of the pope in the church.
Students performed well. “It was so nice to see them raising their hands and getting the answers right,” said assistant principal Mary Martha Rockwell.
St. Peter’s displayed a banner designed by all the students to welcome the pope to the Hill. The artwork was meant to express the students’ enthusiasm as well as the school’s commitment to incorporate religious education “into everything we do,” said Rockwell.
To prepare for the pope, the students also studied the role of the papacy and the life of Benedict XVI. Older students studied popes throughout history, and younger students read a book written about the life of Joseph Ratzinger when he was a cardinal before his papacy. The book, titled “Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as Told By a Cat,” was written from the point of view of the pontiff’s Siamese cat, Chico.
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Posted on Apr 25, 2008 20:49pm.
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