What Pope Francis May Have Seen Inside the Vatican Embassy

Pope Francis slept last evening at the Vatican Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington DC, more formally called the Apostolic Nunciature to the United States.

International travel is tiring, to be sure; but if by chance the pontiff woke during the night and went padding around in his slippers, perhaps he walked down the staircase from his third floor bedroom to the second floor reception room, where he may have found his way to this:

It’s a tapestry of Noah, giving instructions for the building of the Ark, and it hangs at the Nunciature. If memory serves me, the tapestry is the work of medieval artist Raphael.

Or continuing the biblical theme, he may have stumbled upon this artwork:

Here is Noah, finely woven in many colors, giving thanks after the Flood. Here is the rainbow which God set in the cloud in Genesis 9:13. Note that the rainbow has not yet been repurposed by the homosexual rights movement, but instead is a pure sign of the covenant between God and the earth.

I’ve been to the Embassy, and I took these photos:  In 2006 I was working for Guest House treatment center for clergy and religious, and making plans for our 50th anniversary celebration. Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the late apostolic nuncio to the United States, invited us to hold a reception there at the Vatican Embassy, in celebration of Guest House’s 50th anniversary.

So here I am with the saintly Archbishop Sambi:

And here are a few scenes from that reception, where Archbishop Sambi spoke to the group about the important mission of Guest House and where a famous alumnus, Dominican preacher Fr. Val LaFrance, talked of his own experience of addiction and sobriety.

It’s been only a few years, but both of these holy men have gone on to be with the Father. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.