papal audience: meeting the pope at the vatican

PAPAL AUDIENCE: MEETING THE POPE AT THE VATICAN

During your staying in Rome and while sightseeing between the monuments of the Eternal City you can arrange to be invited to a group papal audience.

Arrangements should be made well in advance of a trip to Rome. The person who wants the audience must ask a priest or a well-known layperson to submit a letter of application to the Noth American College, which is the proper authority.

When the audience is granted, a letter is mailed to the person who requested it. Upon arriving in Rome, you must obtain directions for submitting your letter of acceptance at the vatican. After this, a day and hour for the audience are assigned, and an invitation is sent to you. The concierge of your hotel in Rome will be able to advise you in greater detail on these procedures.

In the renaissance time when saint Peter's square did not exist yet, the papal private audience took place in the vatican gardens.
General audiences take place in the morning on Wednesdays at saint Peter's. If you have not been assigned a reserved seat, arrive early so you can stake out a good viewing position.

Dress conservatively even if you are one of hundreds. Women wear dark-colored dresses, with unrevealing necklines and long sleeves, and cover their heads. Men wear conservative business suits; in the reserved section some men will wear formal morning dress, and most women will be in black with gloves and mantillas. Some people prefer to arrange for a private audience. These are granted to prominent persons of all religious persuasions. This still does not necessarily mean that you will meet the Pope alone, but you will not be among the throngs for the Wednesday morning audience at saint Peter basilica.

When the pope approaches a visitor at a private audience, the visitor is expected to kneel and kiss his ring. Dress is very conservative at a private audience. Some men will be wearing formal morning dress, but most will be in dark.

Until 1870, year of Rome's annexation to the kingdom of Italy ruled by Victor Emanuel II, the pope's role as a sovereign included some practices such as Pius IX's habit of strolling the streets of Rome without much of an entourage, even joining a funeral procession he encountered on his way. The end of the papal state, however, isolated the pope and made access to his person a more complicated matter. The strict protocol maintained under Leo XIII ( 1878 - 1903) increased the reputation of the pope auudience as an extraordinary event.

Visitors obtain audiences with the pope through rules of protocol or through the pope's own spontaneous gestures. The pope must receive ambassadors at the beginning and end of their missions. Likewise, he receives all political leaders wo request an audience.

As mentioned before, there are several types of audiences and meetings with the pope. The one to one private audience occurs in the papal library and its duration depends upon the athmosphere of the exchange.

The "Osservatore Romano", official daily newspaper of the vatican records such events in the following day's edition. Ambassadors, politicians and well known intellectuals benefit from this type of audience. The term " private audience with the pope" is also used to indicate a pope's meeting with a group of pilgrims participants at a colloqium, for instance, with or any other collectivity whose request through an intemediary has been accepted.

This type of audience generally takes place in one of the rooms of the papal apartments, the Consistory room or the Clementine room. At this type of audience, the pope honors his guests with a speech relevant to their trip to Rome and their relationship with the church. The pope, once his speech is over, gives his blessing and personally greets all the participants, who are presented to him one at a time. The audience finishes with a group photograph including the pope.