Pope Francis, the ultimate head of the global Catholic Church passed away yesterday. I pray for his eternal repose and that a new Pope as good as him gets elected by the conclave.
I've seen him in person when he came to visit Tacloban City after typhoon Haiyan which devastated Leyte not only by its strong winds but also with the unprecedented tsunami that killed thousands of people in my province of Leyte. He came to Leyte a year and a half later but it remained a sympathetic gesture that felt like being embraced by someone holy. I purposely came back to Leyte to fulfill a once in a lifetime experience to get a glimpse of the Pope.
I will never forget that experience sort of a pilgrimage. I took leave from my busy work schedule and came back to Leyte to witness the event. As early as three in the morning, we had to be at the makeshift quadrants near the airport. I was part of the huge crowd waiting for the Pope who arrived as early as seven in the morning, as the sun was coming out.
Before he began his holy mass, he made a tour around the crowd in his Pope mobile. There was a lot of excitement all around me. When his mobile car passed me by, I was mesmerized, and was not even able to capture a shot. That's how awesome the feeling that I couldn't explain.
Then he delivered the mass in the makeshift stage. I couldn't concentrate on his mass because that time, I felt like I was under some spell, I don't know if it was because of hunger since we had no breakfast. I saw white light emanating from the sky that reaches the stage where the Pope was, some kind of scene in a fiction movie. I couldn't hear anything but peace and quiet and the white light and the seemingly white all around me. It was a fleeting scene that I would never forget.
