On the Feast of Corpus Christi in 2001, before the world changed in September of that year, I "crashed" a papal Mass in the piazza of St. Peter's in Rome. His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, was canonizing five new saints that day and tickets were required to get past certain points closer to the altar. I slipped in with a bunch of Lebanese pilgrims whose gal, St. Rafqa, was being canonized that day, and got past security.
The Pope was indeed physically frail - but it did not stop him from delivering a 30-miniute sermon in three languages. The mind was still there.
And it was hot!
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