After losing sleep, being stuck in hours of traffic jams and walking various kilometers in 100 degree heat, how do you explain to your 10-year old son that the one fleeting glimpse of the Holy Father in the Popemobile passing by is the only up-close sight of the Pontiff that he is going to see on this trip?
The easy answer would be to tell him that we Catholics are just plain crazy.
In the five-hour trip home from this past weekend’s Fifth World Family Congress in Valencia, Spain I kept finding myself trying to answer the question, “Why did we go?” And so I began to think back over the past 72 hours.
Last Friday began with traffic jams that lasted almost 180 kilometers out of Madrid. The trip that normally should take three-to-four hours lasted six. It was the worst traffic that I have ever been in my 24 years of driving experience. At 10:00 PM we made it to the Family Rosary at the Malvarosa beach in Valencia and met the rest of our expedition that included three adults, four couples and 15 children, ages ranging from 1 to 14. The majority of the children were under 10-years old.
By the time Friday’s Family Rosary ended and we found our cars it was 1 AM – and we still had an hour drive to the pueblo where we were all staying at a hostal.
Before crawling toward bed there was a debate if Saturday morning we should all go to the airport to greet Pope Benedict who was arriving at 11:30 AM. Thankfully cooler heads ruled.
Instead we went to a wonderful paella – a typical Valencia rice dish – lunch made just for us. Over our meal we watched a local television channel playing continuous coverage
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