Messa Della Notte al Vaticano

Since we were in Italy, we decided to attend the Christmas Midnight Mass given by Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter's Basilica. In order to go, I had to reserve tickets for entrance for my family at the Pontifical North American College (the American Catholic Seminary in Rome) about a month ago. The tickets didn't guarantee admittance but you had to have them to get in. We got in line at St. Peter's Square at about 6:30 p.m. The line quickly filled. In essence, I told my parents that this was nothing compared to the nights waiting in line at the O'dome for Gator Basketball. One nice thing was that a few study abroad students were right in front of me in line and they came prepared. So they shared a glass of Chianti with me! At about 10:15 p.m. officials let people into the Basilica. It was mayhem. Right when the gates opened, people started running and some people even tried to run ahead of other people in line. I thought to myself, this is the worst place to skip and be dishonest :). After getting through security, my family and I sat down in our seats and waited about another hour until the ceremony began. It was a beautiful ceremony that was given primarily in Latin and Italian. Instead of translating everything, each part of the mass was given in different languages, even Tagalog! Given that, my family and I (and I'm sure the masses of tourists) did not understand the majority of the service. My mom actually fell asleep during part of the Pope's homily. The event was covered by CNN and I later found out that the homily focused on loving all children around the world (which would explain why the Pope said bambini a lot and why there were kids in native garb giving the gifts to the pope). The service lasted about 2 hours and we didn't get home until 4 a.m.