Pope Paul VI’s visit to NY in 1965 was the first time a pope ever visited the U.S.

My mother’s family was Irish-Catholic.  My maternal grandfather came to America first and found work and, over the course of several years, sent money back home to Ireland every month until they had enough saved for his entire family — his wife, their three daughters, and one son — to make the voyage and join him in America.

Hats off to my grandfather, who could have easily been tempted to abandon his family and start a new life, maybe with a new wife, in America.

The Irish-Catholics in my family that traversed the Atlantic were extremely religious.  Going to Mass (not church) every Sunday was an absolute must.  Missing Sunday Mass constituted a sin.  One of my aunts disparagingly referred to Catholics who attended Mass only on Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday as “A&P Catholics,” bearing their forehead ashes and palm leaves to fool everybody into believing they were good practicing Catholics.

One of my aunts became a nun.  Whereas her brother and sisters continued to call her Millie, short for Mildred, her given name, my cousins and I knew her only as Sister Gabriel.  Like all Catholic nuns, Sister Gabriel had taken a new name, symbolizing her commitment to a new life.  Another aunt became a Catholic schoolteacher.

When I was growing up, going to Mass every Sunday remained an absolute requirement of my mother — that is, until churches began offering Mass options at 5:30 or 7:30 on Saturday evenings.  At some point, churches also began offering a 5:30 Mass on Sunday evenings, which worked out great in the summer.  Hang out in the pool all day, go to Mass at 5:30.  Check the box, make Mom happy.

I cannot recall any in-depth discussions about popes when I was very young, except for one of my Italian uncles who loved relaying that Pope John XXIII’s real name was Angelo Roncalli and that Pope Paul VI’s real name was Giovanni Montini.  Like Sister Gabriel, when a cardinal is elected pope, he gets to choose his papal name.

The biggest pope story in the family took place when it was announced that Pope Paul VI would be visiting New York and saying Mass in Yankee Stadium.

Wow, did that news generate a buzz throughout the family, which became even bigger news when Sister Gabriel announced she was able to secure a bunch of tickets for the Mass — the equivalent to scoring front-row tickets for a Beatles concert!

My uncle and his sisters (including my mother) joined their other sister, Sister Gabriel, and thousands of others (90,000) to hear Pope Paul VI say Mass from second base.

The family talked about that experience for years.  My uncle was especially impressed that after saying Mass, the pope drove over to the World’s Fair in Queens, visited a Michelangelo sculpture, and then flew back to Rome.  

In total, Pope Paul VI’s visit to N.Y. lasted just 14 hours, landing around 9:30 A.M. at Idlewild Airport (later renamed JFK Airport) and departing late in the evening. 

Reading about and watching the funeral of Pope Francis brought back the Yankee Stadium memories.

In a strange way, it was easier for me to name a current pope when they seemed cloaked in mystery and never left Rome.  Once popes began traveling extensively and appearing all over the internet, to me, the mystery evaporated, and I lost interest in knowing anything about the current pope, down to his real name. 

(Pope Francis’s real name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio.  Thank you, Grok.)

Image: Ambrosius007 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.