When flock gathers, it takes all kinds

And one of the pilgrims brought nine knives to mass at Downsview Park, JOE FIORITO writes

By JOE FIORITO
Monday, July 29, 2002

At 9 a.m., transit supervisor Brenda Ross stood outside Downsview subway station; she had been on duty for five hours. "I had to get up before I went to bed," she said with a laugh. A man asked her where he should go to see the Pope. "Just follow the crowd, dear." She smiled broadly.

Her cap was decorated with pins given by Catholics she had helped along the way. The pins carried inspirational messages: I Am Loved. Spread The Word. Joy is Being Franciscan.

"Oh, and I have a ketchup pin and a dill pickle pin. Actually, I had a dill for breakfast, and a frozen hot dog," Brenda said.

You grab what inspiration you can after a week of 12-hour shifts.

Some Seventh-Day Adventists began to hand out booklets near the station exit. Brenda took a booklet with a smile and said, "You can't do that here. You have to go out there."

The Adventists moved on with smiles of their own.

Down the road, a kid was selling World Youth Day water for $1.50 a bottle.

Someone said, "Holy water, eh? You know they sell it in the station for $1.25." The kid said, "You're not there no more."

A man waved a fistful of white-and-yellow papal flags in the rain. "Flags for sale, $2 each, get your papal flags." I watched him. He twitched. "You startled me. I thought you were from the city. I thought you were going to ask for my licence. I don't have a licence." He sold 15 flags in a half-hour.

As I approached Downsview Park I heard a choir in the distance and I saw a giant cross, but I also noticed a long line of bedraggled people leaving before the start of mass. Three men from Papua New Guinea wearing pink plastic ponchos said, "We stayed overnight. Now we are too wet." By the look of them, they also were too cold and too dirty and too tired.

Emilio and Concetta Ammendolio, an older couple who live near the park, also were heading home. Emilio: "We got here at 7:30. There's too much rain." Concetta: "There's no place to sit. You can't see anything because of all the umbrellas." Emilio, with a twinkle: "You can see it better on TV at home -- and you can have a glass of wine."

Chris Dixon sat in his ambulance and watched. "I've had three hours sleep since yesterday. In that time, I've gone on maybe 50 calls. Mostly for Band-Aids, lots of blisters, one or two asthmatics in need of oxygen, and a couple of oats."

Oats? "Old and Tired."

The Pope, and me.

You might like to know that nobody got into the park with anything resembling a weapon. Among the items confiscated yesterday: 60 Swiss Army knives; a kitchen knife with a serrated five-inch blade; a lethal-looking boning knife; hundreds of small jackknives; a box cutter; a pair of pinking shears; 200 pairs of scissors of various sizes; a can of pepper spray; a jar of taco sauce; four bottles of after-shave; six spray cans of bug repellant; one suture needle; and a pink hand mirror.

Security supervisor Newton Francis said, "I don't expect this from these people." He showed me a single plastic bag; in it were nine knives confiscated from a single pilgrim. What kind of jerk brings nine knives to see the Pope?

By this time I could hear JP2 but I couldn't see him so I took a moment with Mark Bradley of the Toronto Police lost property unit. He said, "In this box there are 35 or 40 pairs of eyeglasses. Here I have 25 wallets with ID but no cash. Here, 40 wallets with ID and cash. In this box, 12 passports. In this one, I have water bottles, two flutes, some books and a teddy bear. I have a box of 10 wristwatches. I have 25 cameras. And I have 12 cellphones -- we leave them on in case anyone calls."

One person called while I was there. I don't think it was the Pope.

I still couldn't see much so I went home.

I took Emilio's advice.