Pope Kisses, Blesses

As soon as Amy Bowman heard the news that Pope Francis was coming to America, she knew she wanted to be a part of it. It’s amazing how everything fell into place.

Of course, the Good Shepherd parishioner couldn’t have predicted how her then-unborn child would play into events.

She and her sister, Tracey McConnell, began the preliminary planning, and soon they had a group of 12 ready to go to Philadelphia.

Everyone entered lotteries to get tickets for the Saturday night celebration and for the Sunday Mass, and for tickets for rail passes to get there. Wonder of wonders, “everything came into place.”

The group drove to Louisville, flew to Philadelphia, took a shuttle downtown, then walked three miles to get to the events.

Why all the effort? “We love the pope’s message, and we love what he stands for,” sadi Bowman, of Newburgh.

As they traveled together, the pilgrims began joking, “What if the baby gets kissed by the pope?”

The baby is Amy’s son, 3-month-old Reese, nicknamed “Baby Tarzan” by his 5-year-old sister, Alayna.

The travelers decided to head for Independence Mall early Sunday morning. “We got there about 9 or 10 in the morning, and the Mass wasn’t until 4,” Bowman explained. “The parade was at 3:20, so we hung out all day. There were police every 10 feet along the parade route. A Philly police officer gave this advice, ‘Hold him out — not up above you.’ A guy from the Vatican who flies on the planes with the pope came and talked with us. We said, ‘Do you have any pull?’ He said, ‘He [the pope] loves all the babies. Get the Secret Service guys’ attention. They get the babies.’”

That’s what happened.

As the southern Indiana group was watching the pope mobile approach, Bowman held Reese out, not above her. A secret service agent grabbed him and walked him over to the pope. The baby was lifted up to the pope, who bent down and kissed him. “It was so tender and sweet,” Bowman recalled.

“All of us were shaking and crying. I couldn’t believe it was happening. It was a huge moment. For a mother, to see him bless your child, it’s very special.”

Bowman held her breath until Reese was safely back in her arms; then things turned a little scary. “The whole crowd around us swooped in. They all wanted to touch the baby. My family, my mom, made a protective huddle around him.”

Still, despite the crowd, the moment was perfect. “It was the sweetest thing. He slept through the whole Mass. It was like he sensed that he was blessed.”

She says that “it’s a big responsibility for me as a mother. The pope took the time to bless him. I want him to be the kind of person who changes the world as well as himself.”

The experience changed everybody, she said. “We talked about where we go from here with our faith.”

During the Mass, the pope talked about gestures of love. “The simple things that he did … like kissing my son … those gestures are how you change the world.”