Love for the Vicar of Christ

16th of August 1955 was the joyful day of my first religious profession. Fifty years later, I celebrated my Golden Jubilee of that day in Castel Gandolfo, Rome, together with my sister Josefa and her religious community in the novitiate house of the Salesian Sisters. On the 15th of August, Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, I was very lucky that I was invited to distribute the Holy Communion and at the same time to concelebrate in the Mass presided by the Pope in the Salesian parish church of Castel Gandolfo. Benedict XVI had been elected pope just four months before this date.

My joy became complete when at the end of the Mass, I was allowed by the secretary of his Holiness, Benedict XVI, to shake the hands of the pope and to exchange a few sentences with him. This happened in the sacristy of the church after the Mass. One of the things I told him was that the following day, 16th of August, was the Golden Jubilee of my religious profession. He congratulated me and promised to pray for me the following day.

The pope conquered my heart with his words, smile and spontaneity. Don Bosco, my spiritual father and teacher, once wrote: "a wish of the pope is a command to me" (MBV, p.874). This sentence of Don Bosco is now my own sentence, and I wish it becomes a sentence treasured by all the Salesians of Don Bosco. Long live the Pope!