Toms River parishioner meets with Pope Francis
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
By Christina Leslie | Correspondent
A member of St. Luke Parish, Toms River, recently met with Pope Francis in a private audience to commemorate the 100th anniversary of international Catholic Scouting. Bray Barnes, who serves as world chairman for the organization, flew to Rome for the Jan. 25 meeting by special invitation from the Holy Father.
“I received a call from the Vatican early on a Tuesday morning advising me that the Pope had granted me a private audience”, Barnes said. “I immediately booked a flight and arrived in Rome early Saturday morning.” Upon arrival, Barnes met in the Catholic Scouting office with Roberto Cociancich of Italy, Scouting world president, and Father Jacques Gagey of France, world chaplain, to prepare for their meeting with the Pope.
Barnes saw the long line of pilgrims waiting in the security line to enter St. Peter’s Square from the office across the Tiber River, but the trio of Scouting executives was escorted directly to the Papal offices by Vatican police. Upon entering the Papal offices, they were escorted through a series of rooms, each in a different color, with the furniture bearing the papal coat of arms.
In the anteroom, Barnes and the others were greeted by the Holy Father’s Monsignor Secretary and the Bishop Prefect of the Papal Household. A chime sounded and the door to the private office of the Pope was swung open.
During an exchange of gifts, Barnes presented His Holiness with a book about the life of Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scouting program. He reminded the pontiff that Pope Pius XI met with Baden-Powell in 1933, the last time a Pope held an official audience with Scouting leadership.
Barnes and his two companions spoke with the Holy Father for about 25 minutes, noting the values of Scouting provided a youth ministry program for the six million Catholic Scouts worldwide. The Holy Father’s message to the organization was “to go ahead. He observed that in order to go ahead, it is necessary not to be stolen of our hope,” Barnes remembered.
The Pope listed outside influences that threatened the virtue of hope, Barnes continued. “[The Pope said] .. the worldliness, the temptations of the world, the consumerism, the research of easy pleasures, the hedonism, in other words, all those things that try to persuade us that heavens are here right now.”
Barnes continued that Pope Francis recommended that Scouts do not forget they are not the owners of the earth, but that they “received the Earth as a legacy by those who were before us. Such legacy does not belong to us. We simply have to take care of it for a temporary period and we owe it to our children and those who will come after us.”
Months later, the reality of the once-in-a-lifetime event was not lost on the Toms River Catholic. “The reality did not set in as to where we were, and with whom we were sitting across the desk until I saw the photos”, Barnes said.
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By Christina Leslie | Correspondent
A member of St. Luke Parish, Toms River, recently met with Pope Francis in a private audience to commemorate the 100th anniversary of international Catholic Scouting. Bray Barnes, who serves as world chairman for the organization, flew to Rome for the Jan. 25 meeting by special invitation from the Holy Father.
“I received a call from the Vatican early on a Tuesday morning advising me that the Pope had granted me a private audience”, Barnes said. “I immediately booked a flight and arrived in Rome early Saturday morning.” Upon arrival, Barnes met in the Catholic Scouting office with Roberto Cociancich of Italy, Scouting world president, and Father Jacques Gagey of France, world chaplain, to prepare for their meeting with the Pope.
Barnes saw the long line of pilgrims waiting in the security line to enter St. Peter’s Square from the office across the Tiber River, but the trio of Scouting executives was escorted directly to the Papal offices by Vatican police. Upon entering the Papal offices, they were escorted through a series of rooms, each in a different color, with the furniture bearing the papal coat of arms.
In the anteroom, Barnes and the others were greeted by the Holy Father’s Monsignor Secretary and the Bishop Prefect of the Papal Household. A chime sounded and the door to the private office of the Pope was swung open.
During an exchange of gifts, Barnes presented His Holiness with a book about the life of Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scouting program. He reminded the pontiff that Pope Pius XI met with Baden-Powell in 1933, the last time a Pope held an official audience with Scouting leadership.
Barnes and his two companions spoke with the Holy Father for about 25 minutes, noting the values of Scouting provided a youth ministry program for the six million Catholic Scouts worldwide. The Holy Father’s message to the organization was “to go ahead. He observed that in order to go ahead, it is necessary not to be stolen of our hope,” Barnes remembered.
The Pope listed outside influences that threatened the virtue of hope, Barnes continued. “[The Pope said] .. the worldliness, the temptations of the world, the consumerism, the research of easy pleasures, the hedonism, in other words, all those things that try to persuade us that heavens are here right now.”
Barnes continued that Pope Francis recommended that Scouts do not forget they are not the owners of the earth, but that they “received the Earth as a legacy by those who were before us. Such legacy does not belong to us. We simply have to take care of it for a temporary period and we owe it to our children and those who will come after us.”
Months later, the reality of the once-in-a-lifetime event was not lost on the Toms River Catholic. “The reality did not set in as to where we were, and with whom we were sitting across the desk until I saw the photos”, Barnes said.
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