This trip was a landmark, our first multi-week international group trip. We saw a brochure for a 16 day trip covering most of Italy in the narthex of Holy Spirit Church at Mass and we were interested because Italy is the seat of the Catholic Church, full of history and good food, and Archbishop Donoghue would be on the trip. I had never taken more than one week of vacation at a time in my business career (I was 50 at the time). I asked my partner at Kinetic Ventures, Willie Heflin, if he thought I should go and he told me I definitely should go. We had a great time, despite the heat of Italy in August, made life long friends, got to know Msgr. Dillon much better as well as Archbishop Donoghue. I enjoyed photographing on the trip, even though I had no training on quality photography.
And this was a watershed, for this was the first of 17 trips over the next 15 years we would make with Msgr. and what came to be a regular group of friends, who I call “The Usual Suspects”. Msgr ran out of places to pilgrimage, and I became the “trip wrangler” and led the group to exotic places such as Egypt, Peru, Morocco, Argentina, Russia, etc.
Because we had the Archbishop, wherever we went to say Mass, they pulled out their best vestments and chalices for us. Also, he was a booster factor when we went for the audience with Pope John Paul one morning. We were led to a set of seats with good viewing, maybe 15-20 rows up from the front. At some point, a wiry Italian in white tie and tails came to me, somehow assuming I was in charge of our group, and said in heavily accented English
“You have Archbishop?”. To which I replied yes and led him to Archbishop Donoghue. A friendly conversation ensued, and our group was led down to the first row, best seats in house behind the Malades and new married couples.
I was thrilled, being in a great spot to get photos. When John Paul entered, the 6000 or so in the audience cheered wildly. As I raised my camera to get a shot, someone hit me like a linebacker from the rear, jostling me aside to get their photo. I looked down and it was a small but wiry Nun, intent on getting the best position. I also remember that there were groups from all over the world there, and most had prepared a special song for the Pope, some with instruments. It was spectacular, each group rising up when their name and country was called, singing their song and waving flags, all different languages. We knew nothing about this and had nothing prepared. When they called our name, we just stood up and called out something like “Hi Pope!”.
The sunset gondola ride in Venice was a special treat. We all sang along with the gondoliers in their traditional outfits.
