American travelers reflect on a historic trip to the Vatican: 'It was meant to be'

USA Today

24-05-2025

American travelers reflect on a historic trip to the Vatican: 'It was meant to be'
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Pope Leo XIV hugs his brother after inaugural mass
Pope Leo XIV embraced and chatted with his older brother after finishing his inauguration mass in Vatican City.
A long-planned pilgrimage to Catholic churches throughout Italy couldn't have been more timely for a group of Connecticut residents who arrived just as the world mourned the loss of Pope Francis and eagerly awaited the identity of the new pope.
For lifelong Catholic Bobbi Hanisek of Waterbury, Connecticut, words failed at describing the opportunity to visit the Vatican and other hallowed sites in Italy while so many people were joined in prayer around the globe.
She compared it to finally visiting Disneyland as an adult after hearing about it for years as a kid. "That's magnified for this trip, as a Catholic," said Hanisek, 76, after the group returned to the U.S.
"Even though we didn't actually see the smoke or see the new pope, the feeling of being there, it was in everybody's heart. It was something we talked about all the way home," she said. "The fact that it was an American was just overwhelming."
They were in Rome, but unable to make it to the Basilica for the announcement of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as pope.
The young priest who organized the trip, Father Patrick Kane, did get to watch Pope Leo XIV step out onto the balcony at St. Peter's Basilica. He was also able to attend the funeral of Pope Francis. Kane, 39, an assistant at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury, told USA TODAY he remains astonished and humbled at the opportunities.
The trip had been in the works for two years and was planned to coincide with the Vatican Jubilee this year, a tradition that takes place every 25 years. Kane flew to Rome before his tour participants, planning to attend the canonization of teenage sports fan Carlo Acutis as a saint by Pope Francis.
Instead, his trip turned into something very different "in a very blessed way," he said. "I was able to visit (Pope Francis) when he was lying in state in front of the main altar at St. Peter's. I said a prayer in front of his body."
Pope Leo takes charge of Catholic Church with Vice President Vance looking on
After a trip that included visits to Capri, San Giovanni Rotondo and the ruins at Pompeii, the group returned to Rome. They were on a bus to their farewell dinner "when all of a sudden everybody's phone started blowing up," said Greg Hanisek, Bobbi Hanisek's husband. White smoke had curled into the sky from the chimney at the Sistine Chapel.
Because Kane could travel much faster solo, the group encouraged him to hop off the bus and catch a taxi to the Vatican to try to catch a glimpse of the new pope from the balcony.
"I managed to flag down a taxi, and they got me pretty close but it was chaos," Kane said. He was surprised to make it into St. Peter's Square, and then wind up next to another priest from his diocese in Connecticut.
"I think it was meant to be," he said. "I ended up standing with him and two of our seminarians and we were there to watch the whole thing."
Kane felt excitement but also "a lot of wonderment" as Pope Leo was announced, he said. A priest in the group recognized his name and knew the pope was from America.
"When he came out, it was obvious he was touched," Kane said. "For us, it's not so much about who's elected pope, it's about the pope and who he is as a leader ... It's a love for the role and not the person himself."
Birds of the Vatican
A chimney erected to send signals from the Papal conclave was upstaged at times by seagulls, helping Greg Hanisek do a little birdwatching at the Vatican.
He shared checklists of birds he saw to the eBird, a platform operated by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology that allows birders to share their bird observations, identifying the gulls that became Internet famous as yellow-legged gulls. The gulls were photographed perching on statues, confronting a drone and checking out the chimney.
Hanisek, who studied a field guide to European birds and range maps for months before leaving for Italy, had no doubt what kind of gulls they were.
Yellow-legged gulls are common in the region, said Hanisek, a retired journalist who writes a nature column for the Waterbury Republican-American. The large birds have a wing span of almost five feet and weigh about 2.5 pounds, according to Cornell's All About Birds website.
Although he's an avid birder, on this trip Hanisek was delighted to squeeze in any birding at all amidst their busy schedule visiting some of Italy's most hallowed churches.
But Hanisek experienced his own moving experience on a ferry trip that included stops at Positano and Amalfi when he was able to spot four yelkouan shearwaters, a type of seabird species, he said. "It's just not a bird you're going to get anywhere other than the Mediterranean."
Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, covers climate change, weather, the environment and other news. Reach her at [e-mail] or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.