Philly's third pope

MUCH OF THE city is going gooney over news that Pope Francis will be the second pope to visit Philadelphia, but he's really our third. Phillies' general manager Paul Owens, the architect of the 1980 Phillies, was nicknamed "Pope." OK, a different kind of pope, but when the Phillies won the World Series it was like a miracle.

The first real pope to visit was John Paul II in 1979, not long after he assumed the Chair of St. Peter.

John Paul was the second pope I had seen in person (not counting Paul Owens) - and I had a matchless view.

My first pope was Paul VI, whom I was privileged to see on his home court - the Vatican. I was among the tens of thousands from all around the world who gathered in St. Peter's Square to receive his blessing from the balcony of the Basilica.

It was 1975 and in Philadelphia, the Newspaper Guild was in the midst of an epic 23-day strike that shuttered the Daily News and the Inquirer. I was the picket captain for my union, organizing picket duty, food, supplies, communications. After a couple of weeks, everything settled into a dull routine. Inside, the papers didn't try to publish. Outside, picketers worked to keep warm.

So I went to Rome for a weekend. That probably requires an explanation.

At that time, I had a sideline as a freelance travel writer and was offered a trip with travel agents and writers - out on Friday, return on Sunday.

Next thing I knew, I was on an Alitalia flight headed for the best weekend of my life (that didn't involve sex).

At St. Peter's, vendors sold crosses made of palm leaves. I bought a few and held them up to the pope during his blessing, later giving them as gifts to Catholic friends. I told them, truthfully, the palm cross had been blessed by the pope.

I saw my second pope in 1979. Jim Moran, a onetime Associated Press reporter, lived on the 16th floor of the Plaza, the octagonal apartment building across from the Four Seasons (which wasn't there in 1979). The Plaza is now the Embassy Suites.

Jim's apartment faced Logan Circle and we stood on his balcony, looking straight down on the 57-step platform that had been built for the pope to celebrate mass for hundreds of thousands. Jim's Irish - Irish Protestant - but the spectacle touched us non-Catholics.

"For weeks, after it became known at work that I lived where I did, various Catholics - including many people I didn't know and some I didn't like - came up to me as if I were their old friend," Jim recalls.

He developed a guest list of Catholics, with me thrown in for ecumenicism, I guess.

It was a glorious day for Philadelphia and Philadelphians as the visit came off smoothly.

In Jim's apartment, the emotional power of seeing and hearing the pope in person led one woman to excuse herself, saying her menstrual period had spontaneously started.

"I thought maybe something religious was going to happen, like another virgin birth - in my apartment. I would be known through the ages, like Joseph! No such luck."

Jim continues: "I didn't fully appreciate the reverence that my Catholic friends held for the pope. They were in tears and did their Catholic rituals in my living room and I must say it was humbling."

I felt humbled, too, both at the Vatican and in the Plaza.

Next year, when I see my third pope (not counting Paul Owens), I expect to be stirred again because this humble pope has the ability to touch the hearts of all people of goodwill.

Phone: 215-854-5977

On Twitter: @StuBykofsky

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