He loves to interact with the people. Here is an exchange involving a soccer shirt. A few blogs back I had noticed that a shop was selling clerical beanies, including white. I couldn't figure out why stores would be selling these publicly since I would think the Pope would be supplied with whatever he needed. It turns out that people buy the white beanies, hand them off to the secret service men who run alongside the Popemobile, who in turn give them to the Pope who then quickly dons the beanie before returning it to the owner. Somehow it reminds me of baseball caps!
The Pope has a good arm!
Since he's head-of-state he also kisses (and in his case, blesses) babies. The Popemobile has come to a stop here. One of the gray suits takes the baby and brings him over to the Pope to be blessed.
The man below is giving the parents of the baby just blessed by the Pope the same brochure we got about accessing the Vatican photos so that they can get a picture of the Pope with their baby.
Along the way, the Pope asked a young girl, maybe 9, and then a boy, about 12, to join him on the Popemobile. At one point the girl touched the back of his coat, followed by the boy. The Pope turned around and smiled at them. What a thrill to ride on the Popemobile, though I'm not sure how the kids ever found their parents in that crowd!
He's nearing the end of the giro. This picture shows how close he came to us. At the south end of St. Peter's Square he got out of the Popemobile and shook the hands of the people along the fence.
If you're not lucky enough to have seats as good as ours, you can watch the Pope on the monitors.
The Pope has finished his giro and is now heading up to the platform. We tend to think of the popes as old men because that's what they always turn into. What struck me about Pope Francis is that he is a very vigorous man, who despite the news reports about missing part or all of a lung, walks very briskly and can still throw a soccer shirt into a crowd with some accuracy.
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