Aboard the ‘VAMP’ rollercoaster as papal press corps keeps up with Pope Francis
After returning from the sprawling 12-day trip to Asia and Oceania with Pope Francis, I find myself in my usual post-papal-trip state. Exhausted, flirting with a cold, while also completely edified – and all magnified by a hundred, as this trip was longer, farther and more intense than any done so far in the 11 The post Aboard the ‘VAMP’ rollercoaster as papal press corps keeps up with Pope Francis appeared first on Catholic Herald.
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After returning from the sprawling 12-day trip to Asia and Oceania with Pope Francis, I find myself in my usual post-papal-trip state.
Exhausted, flirting with a cold, while also completely edified – and all magnified by a hundred, as this trip was longer, farther and more intense than any done so far in the 11 years of international travel under Pope Francis.
In total, Pope Francis and those of us following in his wake belonging to the strikingly named VAMP papal press corps – Vatican Accredited Media Pool – took five international flights and changed time zones five times in 12 days, jumping from hot and muggy weather in Indonesia to sharp dry heat in Papua New Guinea and East Timor, and then to summer thunderstorms in Singapore before crisp autumnal weather upon arriving back in Rome.
Papal trips are always a bit of a rat-race, with all those associated with the VAMP rising at ungodly hours to eat breakfast and check in for whatever the morning’s first event is; being shuffled to and from papal events hours beforehand to go through security and get set up; and writing anywhere between two to four articles a day, including tackling prepared papal speeches and interviews with people on the ground, who are often eager to share their experiences.
Everywhere we go, the papal press corps is treated by locals like an extension of the Pope’s official entourage – we are welcomed with enthusiasm and showered with gifts. It’s the closest most of us will get to feeling like celebrities ourselves.
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Despite broad concern beforehand about how Pope Francis, aged 87 and having faced significant health challenges last year, would handle the travails of his trip to Asia and Oceania, he demonstrated remarkable resilience and energy.
On the flight from Rome to Jakarta, he came to the back of the plane to greet each of us journalists traveling with him individually – sometimes we were taken up to him if he was too tired or his knee was too sore to come greet us on foot – and he was in especially good form as we took off.
On the ground, Francis seemed to be largely unimpacted by the more than 13-hour flight to Jakarta, and similarly unaffected by each subsequent flight we took. He delivered each of his speeches with enthusiasm, and apart from a few mornings when his voice sounded a bit tired, he maintained great form.
He continually made those types of spontaneous gestures he has become known for, kissing the hand of the Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, which was replied to with a tender kiss from the imam on the pontiff’s head.
In each meeting that the Pope had with young people in the countries we visited, he tossed away his prepared remarks and spoke entirely off the cuff, often asking young people questions and referencing points made by those who gave their testimonies during the meetings.
When it came to the papal press conference on the return flight from Singapore to Rome, usually a significant moment, Pope Francis again demonstrated an impressive energy for someone who had just completed 12 days of intense travel and public and private meetings.
He answered questions directly and clearly, addressing the US presidential election, future travel plans, the Vatican’s engagement with China, the clerical abuse crisis and more.
The Pope told US Catholics who might feel caught between the two main candidates wielding pro-choice and anti-migrant policies to vote according to their consciences and to choose the “lesser of two evils”. He praised China as a “great country”, adding that he is happy with the way dialogue is going. He described clerical sexual abuse as “something demonic” and said that when cases occur, “we must speak clearly about these things and not hide them”.
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In fact, during the airborne press conference the Pope seemed perkier than most of the rest of us on board, and after 45 minutes of answering our questions, he seemed like he could have kept going if it hadn’t been for a bout of turbulence, and for the fact that dinner was about to be served.
After the trip, he appeared for his Sunday Angelus address at the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace looking almost as if he’d been on vacation for the past two weeks, while the rest of us are practically zombies.
In short: during this trip, which comes just a few months before he turns 88, he seemed better than ever.
Perhaps expectedly, but also paradoxically, the places that touched many of us the most on the trip were the places that had relatively nothing; those “peripheries” that the Pope championed, countries ridden with poverty and crime, but where the faith was vibrant and strong, such as Papua New Guinea and East Timor.
In Papua New Guinea, the people were deeply moved – their faith experienced at a profound interior level. Those who attended papal events generally did not scream or shout, rather they wept openly and described Francis’s presence as a miracle.
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The most impactful stop of the journey for the majority of us in VAMP was East Timor – from the massive crowds who lined the streets to greet us upon our arrival, to the volunteers who placed traditional scarves on our shoulders as we entered our hotel, to the beauty of the beaches and the sunsets, to the general joy and enthusiasm of the majority-Catholic nation at having their pastor among them for the first time in 35 years.
In each place visited, the Pope, and us by extension, received a warm and enthusiastic welcome, but by far it was in Papua New Guinea’s capital city of Dili and in East Timor’s notorious capital of Port Moresby – one of the Church’s most difficult missionary outposts – where the Pope’s presence and words were appreciated the most.
As ever, this trip provided proof that what the people in these places lack in material goods, they make up for in faith.
It was those who were the poorest and who came from a context of social suffering that had the most to give, not in terms of gifts or material honours, but in terms of what counted – their joy, their enthusiasm, their love and their unwavering commitment to their faith amid difficulty.
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Photo: Pope Francis attends a news conference aboard the papal plane on his flight back after his 12-day journey across Southeast Asia and Oceania, 13 September 2024. (Photo by GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.)
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