A Blessed First Anniversary

One year ago today, on 1 May 2011, I had the privilege of witnessing and covering the Beatification of John Paul II at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.  

I have yet to post all the pictures of that once-in-a-lifetime experience, but I nevertheless blogged about it in my Facebook account.

Although I described the confluence of emotions I felt at that time, I didn't mention what actually took place between live reports.

During the Beatification ceremony itself,  I was scheduled to file several phoners and two live reports for our local news programs in the Philippines, one at around 9AM Rome time (3PM Manila time) and another at around Roman noon (6PM Manila time).

Doing the live report and narrating what was happening at the square was no problem; getting from one point to the other was what proved to be the big challenge.

My first live point was situated at the border of Vatican City and Rome,  just outside the steel fence or barrier separating the city-state and Italy.  The other one was on the rooftop of some building at Piazza del Risorgimento, which is just about 300 meters from the square.

I don't know if you were able to watch video or see pictures of the event.  But there was literally a multitude, a sea of people numbering from between 1.5 to 2 million. The people filled the entire square and spilled over to as far as who knows where.

What should have taken a leisurely 5-10  minute walk from the Vatican border to the rooftop location... took more than two hours! (The fact that I wasn't familiar with the numbering scheme for piazzas and vias also did not help, as I got confused looking for the building which housed the satellite provider.)

But by some stroke of luck (or more like through the intercession of Blessed John Paul II)... I made it a good 15 minutes before the live window to Manila opened.

The picture above doesn't lie: I was burned, I was parched, I was exhausted (and I looked bloated, perhaps from exhaustion and jet lag.)

But it was worth it. 

Happy anniversary, Blessed John Paul II!