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Pilgrims Scott Hosie, right, and Laura Lenze cover themselves as they wait for the arrival of the Pope. Photo: Dan Loh/CP
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GRAEME SMITH
Globe and Mail Update
Toronto — Somewhere in Colorado, a certain priest must feel very powerful Sunday. Rain was whipping Downsview Park morning during the beginning of the Pope's mass, tearing lights from utility towers and making the loudspeakers sway so menacingly that pilgrims ran away and vaulted over fences in fear of falling equipment.
Rod Lenz, 47, huddled with his group from Wray, Colo., under a tarpaulin. They watched the mass on a giant television screen as pilgrims stumbled past in the muddy field.Then Mr. Lenz unfolded his cell phone and called home to his priest, who was preparing for a Sunday service, and asked him to pray for better weather. "We don't need this rain," Mr. Lenz said, holding out his soggy hands. "I'm getting all wrinkly." Barely an hour later, the rain stopped, the clouds broke, and the sun shone. Despite his plea for divine relief, Mr. Lenz said, he didn't want to complain. "If you don't suffer for something, you don't have real growth," Mr. Lenz said.
By GRAEME SMITH
Globe and Mail Update
Toronto — Eager young Roman Catholics jostled for position near the mammoth stage at Downsview Park on Saturday, watching the sky for the Pope's helicopter. Their eyes widened as three Griffon military choppers touched down on the grass, followed by an air ambulance. They pointed and chattered in half a dozen languages when soldiers unloaded the Pope's wheeled cart with brass-coloured railings. They waved flags, peered through binoculars, and snapped pictures.
Screams erupted a moment later, after the Pope's navy blue Sikorsky circled and landed. "Papa! Papa!" yelled Elena Sabina, 16, from Mexico. "I love you Papa!" But most of the hundreds of thousands who packed the former military air strip in north Toronto Saturday were further away, camped on rutted fields and cracked tarmac where the event was only visible on television screens. They were watching the sky for a different reason — the forecast called for rain, so they were building shelters using tarps, straw mats, cardboard boxes, umbrellas, and plastic fences. Some gave the ceremony their full attention. Mayra Baez, 25, from Newark, N.J., sat just a couple metres from a giant screen which flashed colours on her face as she watched the Pope speak. "It's so full of emotion for me," Ms. Baez said, "because he [the Pope] is the closest to God." Dan Konz, 40, a group leader from Polonia, Wis., peered at the stage and listened to simultaneous translation on his earphones. "I'm in total awe," Mr. Konz said. Ginette Templeton, 20, from Hartford, Conn., sang along with the choirs as their voices drifted over the loudspeakers. "I don't understand the people who are just sitting down for this," she said. Not everybody watched the Pope: as he spoke, a young man and woman lay together in the dark near the back of the crowd, kissing. For some of the delegates, the event was the culmination of a long journey. Muhanned Altawil, 28, said he felt lucky to be one of the only visitors from Iraq. He was only able to attend, he said, because he belongs to a French religious order called the Dominicains. "This shows that the chruch is still living," Mr. Altawil said in French. "It's not the church of our parents or grandparents, it's our church." For others, the trip was a whim. Natalie D'Antonio, 18, lives on one of the 52 streets around the site that police blocked off for the event. She saw the construction crews building the stage, the security teams prowling the area, and technicians testing slideshow projections. After being woken up at 2 a.m. as organizers tested the sound systems, she said, she decided to sign up with some friends. They packed a shopping cart with cardboard boxes, a sleeping bag, flags, bug spray, a flashlight, and an umbrella to prepare for the sleepover. "At first we didn't really care, until we started meeting everybody," Ms. D'Antonio said. "They're so friendly." As the sky grew dark, pilgrims lit the candles they'd been given. Many quickly discovered that their plastic candleholders melted when held at an angle. A few firebugs experimented with igniting small blazes on the tarmac, using lighter fluid or dry grass. Parts of the field grew chaotic as the darkness deepened and pilgrims made trips to the food vendors, water trucks, and portable toilets. Nuns in white habits hiked up their skirts to skip over muddy ruts. A girl screamed "Oh my God, a frog!" When the ceremony finished and the Pope's helicopter had lifted off, the field became a dark sea of green and blue phosphorescent glowing necklaces and crosses, hawked by vendors for $5 apiece. Pop music boomed over the loudspeakers late into the night.
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