Insider's View of Papal trip to Britain...

While at the "Church Up Close" conference I attended last week in Rome, I met Paul Burnell from BBC Online who also attended and became fast friends because he is such a joyful and faith-filled man. We were blessed to enjoy precious conversations over meals and gelato. I also had the pleasure of meeting up with my friend and colleague, Mary De Turris Poust whom I have known for a few years because of our Catholic writing work, but had not the chance to meet face-to-face until we both traveled to Rome from the east coast of the U.S. to attend the Catholic journalist's conference. Needless to say, I was constantly thanking God for the blessed opportunities to meet up with such wonderful people and get more up close (no pun intended!) with our Church too!

Sarah Hayes (OSV), Mary De Turris Poust, (OSV and author) and me after a very long day of lectures and events and
a lot of walking (blisters to prove it) in search of a certain restaurant.

Enjoying a moment of conversation and gelato in Piazza Navona after a full day of lectures
[Paul and me]

And, what I'd like to share with you now, before I have a chance to continue with my blogging (Part Four) about my journey to Rome, is this wonderful piece at the OSV Daily Take below. Fellow conference-mate Mary De Turris Poust asked Paul to share his insights since he is there right now covering the Pope's visit to the UK. You'll love his vivid account weaving the past with the present.

First, Mary's Intro...

"I met Paul Burnell, a UK-based Catholic journalist, at "The Church Up Close" program in Rome earlier this month. Paul checked out of the newsroom to attend the beatification Mass for Cardinal John Henry Newman as a regular member of the faithful this weekend. I asked him if he would be willing to share his experience with OSV Daily Take. Thank you, Paul, for giving us this exclusive insider's view:"

"Pope Benedict came to Britain to beatify John Henry Cardinal Newman – one shy intellectual Catholic genius honouring another. But in a certain sense the pope’s visit resembled that of the forgotten hero in the Newman story – Blessed Dominic Barberi, the Italian Passionist who received Newman into the Church.

Pronouncing the Church’s latest Blessed at the massive outdoor Mass in Birmingham on September 19, the Pope revealed that his feast day would be October 9, the day when Blessed Dominic arrived soaked to the skin and freezing at Littlemore near Oxford after traveling on top of a stage coach to Oxford from the North of England. Blessed Dominic believed in the conversion of England, a vision that had inspired his order’s founder, St Paul of the Cross. Little did he know how profound – yet unsung -- his role would be in English Catholicism’s Second Spring.

Like Dominic I arrived freezing and soaked to the skin for the outdoor Mass in a park close to Newman’s grave and the hills where he sought R and R. We were delivered by our coaches – the police decreed no pilgrim could travel on their own – to a post industrial wasteland, the site of one of the UK’s biggest ever car plant..." Continued here.