The Pope Brings Hope to the Philippines

The Philippines is truly blessed as one of the most inspiring, passionate and well-loved people today, Pope Francis, visited recently(January 15 to 19, 2015). The theme of the Papal visit event is "Mercy and Compassion".

My friend and I joined the millions of Filipinos who have expressed so much excitement and gladness to see Pope Francis live and hear his messages.

In our minds, it is not everyday that we get an opportunity to see the Pope live and upclose in our own country. 

Seeing people line up and wait for the Pope in areas where he shall go to was such an unforgettable experience. He really had a rockstar welcome from the Filipinos.

On 15 January 2015, the day of Pope Francis' arrival, people gathered along Roxas boulevard, Quirino Avenue and Taft Avenue to catch a glimpse of the Pope as he rode the Popemobile to go to the Papal Nunciature in Manila, where he was accommodated during his stay in Manila.

My friend and I took an Uber ride to the farthest point we can reach close to the Papal Nunciature area and walked to the McDonald's branch located on the corner of San Andres and Quirino Streets in Manila.

Enterprising Filipinos sold various souvenirs during the event. My friend and I ended up getting our Pope Francis button pins which was sold at PHP20(around USD0.50) per piece.

Pope Francis button pins

We waited for 2 hours but we were not able to get a glimpse of him since aside from the fact that it was already dark when he got to the street near the Papal Nuncio during the time his Popemobile turned on the corner of the street going to the Papal Nunciature the people in front of us were all extremely excited that their mobile phones were raised up in the air to take videos and photos. It was like "people power" that night in Manila when people patiently waited for the Pope. Even the hundreds of people in front of us did not see the Pope as the vehicle he was on turned so quickly around the corner when it headed to the Papal Nunciature. The photo below shows people trying to take photos and videos.

The McDonald's branch where we went to wait for the Pope was so full that people literally had to squeeze in just to order. It took us 45 minutes waiting time to use the restroom at said store. What a way to test our patience ha ha ha. Here's a photo of the store that night.

The first day of the Papal visit was considered a practice run for me and my friend.

We did not give up. The next day, we tried to get a glimpse of the Pope again. The weather was not too hot on January 16th(Friday), the day that Pope Francis was scheduled to go to the Manila Cathedral to conduct a mass.

We took an Uber ride again to Luneta park area past 8:30AM and walked a bit to talk to some of the security personnel at the event to find out which road will be used for the motorcade activity. The policemen advised us not to go to Cathedral since it was already jampacked with people. They told us that we should just try to see the Pope from the street near us.

We positioned ourselves at P. Burgos street located in between Luneta park and near Manila Hotel area as we saw most of the policemen were deployed standing on this road.  After a few security personnel riding in motorbikes have passed us we were sure that this route is where the Pope will pass during his motorcade. 

We were lucky as we were at the frontline. People started to cheer louder when the security team for the motorcade passed by.

The crowd  raised their hands and kept on cheering and waving when the Popemobile was approaching us.

I just kept on clicking on my phone to take photos and was lucky that I was able to take a photo of Pope Francis when he was near us.

I felt so blessed that I was able to take this memorable photo of Pope Francis
 as he was approaching us.

I was not able to take a photo of  Pope Francis when he was right in front of us already since I ended up putting my phone down and started to use my hand, focus my eyes towards him and mindfully waved to him and smiled back at him. No regrets since I really preferred to see him upclose with full attention even if it was just a few seconds.

Pope Francis' aura was so radiant. There is a certain feeling of lightness and happiness that surrounded us when he passed by to bless us. I truly feel so blessed to have been able to see him at an arms reach. Honestly, if the Popemobile was not so fast my friend and I could have touched his hand since he  really makes an effort to reach out his hand to the people during the motorcade.

This is certainly an awesome experience that I shall never forget. I feel truly blessed to have had the chance to see Pope Francis upclose and the cool thing is that it happened here in my home country. 

The Pope truly brings hope to the Philippines as he connected to people and his messages have been heard and have resonated.

This is definitely one of the coolest and most historic event in the Philippines this 2015. Thank you for visiting the Philippines and blessing us, Pope Francis!