Private audience with pope given to small-town parish delegates

A group of parishioners from the small Australian township of Childers experienced an "incredible moment" when they were granted a private audience with Pope Leo XIV in Vatican City. Father Jack Ho, along with parishioners Joe and Jillian Russo, met the Pope during a pilgrimage to Rome last month.

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As we were joking around about this possibility, suddenly it's not much of a joke anymore and the next minute [Mr Pitt] was preparing a brief to send to the Vatican.

The unexpected opportunity arose when the trio realized they would all be in the Italian capital simultaneously. Australia's ambassador to the Holy See, Keith Pitt, who previously served as the federal MP for the region, helped facilitate the meeting. "As we were joking around about this possibility, suddenly it's not much of a joke anymore and the next minute [Mr Pitt] was preparing a brief to send to the Vatican," Father Ho recounted.

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When we arrived on Wednesday, there were thousands of people in the square and we're sitting four rows from the pope, waiting to see what might happen, and we got the opportunity to talk to him.

They received confirmation of the "baciamano," a brief opportunity to greet the Pope, the day before the general audience. "When we arrived on Wednesday, there were thousands of people in the square and we're sitting four rows from the pope, waiting to see what might happen, and we got the opportunity to talk to him," Mr Russo said. He described the experience as "just so unreal," noting that the conversation, though brief, felt significant.

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It was just so unreal.

Father Ho shared that he spoke to the Pope about his small Queensland parish and its associated St Joseph's School, which recently celebrated its centenary. The school, with 160 children, houses a small wooden cross made from timber from its original site. In return for a handmade candle and a school leadership shirt presented by the group, Pope Leo XIV blessed the cross and gifted the parish a zucchetto, one of his previously worn white skullcaps, a gesture steeped in papal tradition.

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There was a sense of incredible warmth and Pope Leo is a beautiful person and was able to really be attentive to our conversations, even though there's so many others waiting to see him.