PILGRIMS CHERISH CHANCE TO SAY GOODBYE TO JOHN PAUL II

The group of Loyola students and friends were joined by several seminarians from the North American College, a graduate-level seminary where many American men study to become priests. Together, they were determined to get as close to “Giovanni Paulo,” as the Italians call him, as possible. And they weren’t leaving anything to luck. They were looking for divine intervention.

At 2 a.m., after abandoning the complicated Phase 10 card game and facing off with a street-cleaning machine that tried to uproot them, the group formed a tight circle and, led by Mark Lenneman, 28, a gentle-spoken third-year seminarian from Billings, Mont., who leads weekly worship services for students at Loyola’s Rome campus, began to pray the rosary.

A little more than an hour later, after a number of decades and some friendly kibitzing with a sympathetic guard, the Loyola students and seminarians found themselves being let through a police barricade and onto the Via della Conciliazione, the broad boulevard leading directly to St. Peter’s, several hours ahead of 2 million other pilgrims.

“That’s the way God is, he really blesses,” Lenneman said as the group set up on a prime spot where they had a clear view of the altar as well as two jumbo TV screens — just in case. “We just walked up and down, just praying, saying, ‘Lord, if it’s your will, let this group get in. Because they deserve it, they really do. This will be a thing they will never forget. They’ve been faithful. They’re just good, good people and good believers.’

“I think that this experience has really stirred something deep in the hearts of everyone that is here, but especially the young people,” he said. “Because the pope always really was open to the young, but also very challenging to them, saying ‘We need you, the church needs you, and, more importantly, Christ needs you.'”

Jake Olzen, 20, of suburban Roselle, who had been studying in Florence this semester, spent Easter in Rome, where he met some of the American seminarians and saw the pope — he calls him “Papa” — twice before leaving to travel through Austria, Hungary and Germany. He was in Munich when he learned the pope had died and returned to Rome as fast as he could.

“Since Papa died, especially because of his passion and his love for the youth specifically . . . that has just kind of said to me, ‘What am I doing with my life and the gifts God has given me?’ ” Olzen said just before a seminarian pulled out a guitar and the group began to sing “My God is an Awesome God” as the sun rose over St. Peter’s Square. “This is really just [my] re-awakening and I have to go somewhere silent where I can hear, kind of, the quiet whispers of God about where I’m supposed to be headed.”

When the security gates were opened about 6 a.m. and tens of thousands of eager pilgrims carrying flags of their native lands ran down the boulevard toward the basilica, Bullaro, Jadwiszczak and two other young women clung to a large potted palm tree, like cowboys in a stampede. They watched the emotional three-hour funeral mass perched on the rim of the tree’s huge planter, standing among its branches, with a great view.

Jadwiszczak wept through most of the service, explaining later that she was moved by the number of Poles in the crowd and overcome with sadness that John Paul was gone. “He’s the only pope I’ve known,” she said. “All my life it’s been, ‘JPII, We Love You!’ ”

While Bullaro doesn’t understand Italian (and most of the mass was conducted in Italian), she said the experience was one of the most spiritually profound she’s had.

“I love God. And I love being with people who love God, and singing about God, and praying to God,” Bullaro said, as the enormous crowd slowly dispersed after John Paul’s body was taken back inside. “And that’s what we did for 14 hours — just worshiped God — by waiting for 14 hours to honor somebody who loves God so much and shared his love of God with everybody.”