21 Dickinson students joined hundreds of thousands of people in visiting the pope in Philadelphia this weekend. The trip to visit the pope’s US tour was arranged by Dickinson’s Father Don Bender of the Saint Patrick Church and Mary Ann Leidigh, Dickinson Catholic Campus Ministry advisor and academic department coordinator for the International Studies and International Business and Management Departments.

Brendan Birth ’16, treasurer of the Catholic Campus Ministry and former president, helped plan for the papal visit. He said the former priest of the ministry, Father Brian Wayne, received 10 tickets last year for Dickinson students. The Diocese of Harrisburg, which provides the tickets and buses, organized this visit rather than the local parish.

“I thought I needed to worry about funding with the student senate,” Birth said. “Thankfully, the Diocese of Harrisburg provided us with everything we needed.”

Leidigh, however, who helped arrange transportation for the students to the Papal Mass, confirmed that Carlisle’s Saint Patrick Church organized four buses to take the students and other community members.

Catholic Campus Ministry President Kevin Doyle ’16 had been looking forward to an opportunity like this since he was a child.

“The pope visit was a fantastic experience that is a very rare event for America,” explained Doyle. “The highlight of my trip was seeing a great representation of how diverse and multicultural the Catholic Church is. There was English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Polish and many more languages being used by the large amount of people present.”

The pope’s homily was a message about love, family and unity. Birth said that this was “really fitting homily for the function he attended while he was in Philadelphia: the World Meeting of Families. It was also a fitting message for a population  which oftentimes struggles with family, unity, and love. It is a simple message, but a message we all need to hear.”

Birth also appreciates Pope Francis’ tendency to say what he thinks is true in the “eyes of God” without “fear of losing popularity.”

Birth stated that a major highlight for him was the “festive” environment due to the “Vatican flags, Francis souvenirs and flags from different countries.”

Birth also described the chills that went through him upon first hearing the thousands of people participate in saying a part of the Mass. For Catholic individuals, being able to say that you were able to participate first-hand in a mass from the pope is a high honor, and the students from Dickinson who were able to participate in this papal visit are among that select few.