I Fedexed the Pope last year well before he cancelled his
scheduled visit to New York due to ill health, inviting him
to visit our construction site for St. Benedict's childcare
center in Harlem. Described project and sent along group
photograph of the clients, elderly Franciscan Handmaids of
the Most Pure Heart of Mary, african-american order of
self-described urban missionaries, posed smiling in front
of modest brick convent on 124th Street next door to the
St. B. site.
Vatican reply received through common post on heavy stock
stationary embossed with ornate papal cartouche: regrets,
schedule too pressing, best wishes for worthy project, many
blessings.
Invitation was premature. Nine years after our starting
plans for St. B.'s, construction has not begun, funding
secured through secular channels still shaky, 125 children
still being cramped in unsuitable quarters at the Joe P.
Kennedy Center on 134th Street. Neighborhood continues to
deteriorate.
Never mentioned my papal correspondence to FHOM Superior
General Sister Loretta Theresa. Was about to one day over
the phone when she suddenly said, "Can I call you right
back, Ms. Natsios, I'm here with the undertaker."
Fedex sent me the usual billing record notifying of
delivery to Vatican City State, Europe, at 13:42 pm --
addressee "His Holiness", but did not specify the location
of the mail room at the Vatican Palace.
Had the courier made the delivery out on the amphitheatre
of the open Belvedere Court? Somewhere near Bramante's
courtyard of San Damaso? Among the illuminated manuscripts
exhibited at the Vatican Museum and Library? Inside a
mahogany and red velvet confessional in St. Peter's itself?
Under Michaelangelo's newly restored murals at the Sistine
Chapel? Between columns of Bernini's Piazza colonnade
within site of the papal balcony? Under the heavy swags of
the bronze baldachino? Along the forced perspective of the
Scala Regia? Inside the Stanze decorated by Raphael?
Fedex wasn't saying.
scheduled visit to New York due to ill health, inviting him
to visit our construction site for St. Benedict's childcare
center in Harlem. Described project and sent along group
photograph of the clients, elderly Franciscan Handmaids of
the Most Pure Heart of Mary, african-american order of
self-described urban missionaries, posed smiling in front
of modest brick convent on 124th Street next door to the
St. B. site.
Vatican reply received through common post on heavy stock
stationary embossed with ornate papal cartouche: regrets,
schedule too pressing, best wishes for worthy project, many
blessings.
Invitation was premature. Nine years after our starting
plans for St. B.'s, construction has not begun, funding
secured through secular channels still shaky, 125 children
still being cramped in unsuitable quarters at the Joe P.
Kennedy Center on 134th Street. Neighborhood continues to
deteriorate.
Never mentioned my papal correspondence to FHOM Superior
General Sister Loretta Theresa. Was about to one day over
the phone when she suddenly said, "Can I call you right
back, Ms. Natsios, I'm here with the undertaker."
Fedex sent me the usual billing record notifying of
delivery to Vatican City State, Europe, at 13:42 pm --
addressee "His Holiness", but did not specify the location
of the mail room at the Vatican Palace.
Had the courier made the delivery out on the amphitheatre
of the open Belvedere Court? Somewhere near Bramante's
courtyard of San Damaso? Among the illuminated manuscripts
exhibited at the Vatican Museum and Library? Inside a
mahogany and red velvet confessional in St. Peter's itself?
Under Michaelangelo's newly restored murals at the Sistine
Chapel? Between columns of Bernini's Piazza colonnade
within site of the papal balcony? Under the heavy swags of
the bronze baldachino? Along the forced perspective of the
Scala Regia? Inside the Stanze decorated by Raphael?
Fedex wasn't saying.