Attendance is limited to ticketholders only, which must be booked in advance and picked up the day before. Our superhero host did that for us and we stood in the sunshine waiting to get through security clutching our bright orange tickets along with individuals and groups from all over the world.
While waiting, many of the these groups, most of which were comprised of students in bad school uniforms, broke out into song, one here, another over there, then two separate groups singing the same song - it was like waiting in line at a rock conert, or an ecclesiastical production of the TV show "Glee".
Inside the modern audience hall (in the warmer months, the audience is held outside in front of St. Peter's) the concert atmosphere continued. Cheers, songs, even choreography.
When the small man in white finally emerged on stage the crowd erupted: students, adults, nuns all stood on chairs and pumped fists in the air, high fived each other, and floated cameras in outstretched hands to capture the moment. Quite the experience for those of us who felt more like observers than full participants.
The Pope read out a blessing and lesson in about 8 languages, then acknowledged each group who had registered in advance. As their names were announced as this church from Chile or that choir from Ohio or this organization from Japan, they would stand and wave or, even better, break out into song. Some were in historical costume, including one group that came from a particular region of Italy and who, rather ceremonially, filed out afterwards to the beat of their own drummers.
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