Close papal encounter rates two thumbs up

By Bill Shea

The excitement among area Catholics awaiting the visit of Pope Francis next month has me recalling the days leading up to Pope John Paul II's visit to Philadelphia in October 1979. A pope was visiting the United States for only the second time in history, and Philadelphia was on his itinerary.

The Sheas' involvement with the papal visit stemmed from our great friendship with the DiCocco family, owners of the St. Jude Shop, a religious goods store in Havertown since 1965. My youngest brother, Hugh, and the youngest DiCocco son, Lou, had remained best friends since grade school, at the School of the Holy Child Jesus in Drexel Hill.

Lou's dad, a devout Catholic and entrepreneur, had decided to sell flags with the papal insignia stamped on the fabric at the outdoor Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. He envisioned thousands of flag-waving Catholics greeting the pope - all of them outfitted by the St. Jude Shop, all of them paying cash.

Louie recruited our middle brother, Pat, and Hugh's buddy (now my brother-in-law) George Barr. They spent the day moving along Broad Street like rogue floor traders at the Philly Stock Exchange. Heading back to the Shea house in Drexel Hill, they took account of their sizable flag profits. My parents, Bill and Rosemary, and my sister, Bernadette, often recalled the enterprise and our currency-carpeted dining room floor as the boys tallied their earnings.

However, there were still some flags left, so Hugh asked whether I wanted to try to sell them that evening, when the pope was to visit St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Two of my best friends, Jack Cassidy and Jim Hamlet, all of us from Monsignor Bonner's Class of 1976, joined me.

By the time we reached the seminary, thousands of people had already gathered. We sold out quickly, each of us holding onto a flag as a keepsake. And then we decided to stick around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pope as he exited the seminary.

Finally, we noticed a few motorcycles on Lancaster Avenue surrounding a black sedan moving in our direction. We weren't quite sure if this was the moment. Could this be the motorcade that was actually carrying the pope?

Before we could speculate any further, the man in the backseat wearing the white zucchetto came into focus. This was Pope John Paul II! His car was approaching. What now? How do you greet a pope? From a sidewalk?

Before we could plan on how to greet him, and with his car only 10 feet from us, Jack Cassidy, the kid from Secane, the devout Cathlolic and hardworking steamfitter, provided the answer.

Jack simply laid down his souvenir flag and timed his now classic "two thumbs up" greeting as the pope rolled to within a few feet of us. Jim and I chain-reacted with our own double-thumbed greeting. There we were, the three of us, saluting the pope with thumbs and smiles as his car moved past us. But it was the next move that would have us talking about that day for the rest of our lives.

John Paul II, the Bishop of Rome, Vicarius Filii Dei, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, saw us and simply smiled. He lifted his own two thumbs up, motioning them slightly forward and somewhat energetically as if to add an exclamation to the greeting that we had just sent him.

A second later, his motorcade drove past. Our bodies pivoted to trail his car, locked in a four-way greeting of thumbs and grins. Just us and the pope. It was divine.

We held our positions for another minute, unable to let go of the moment, transfixed like the very statues that lined the halls of St. Charles Borromeo. Awestruck. Motionless. Slack-jawed. All thumbs still up.

On that warm fall evening in Philadelphia in 1979, we exchanged a simple greeting with one of the most influential and holiest men in the world. His reaction to our greeting spoke volumes about him and echoed all that I have read about him as a humble, simple, holy, caring man.

For a man who was eventually to be elevated to the heavenly status of sainthood, he was certainly very down-to-earth that October night in Philadelphia.