Pope's Visit Infuses Donovan Catholic Students With Joy, Inspiration

For Catholics across the country, the visit by Pope Francis to the United States and his upcoming Masses at the World Meeting of Families are an important occasion.

The pope’s visit -- the 10th visit by the leader of the Catholic Church since the first occurred when Pope Paul VI traveled to the United States in October 1965 -- is the first since a five-day trip by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. But it has generated far more excitement than Benedict’s visit.

That excitement was visible on the grounds of Donovan Catholic High School in Toms River, where the school celebrated “Pope Day” on the occasion of his address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol building -- a historic event, as no other pope has ever addressed a joint session of Congress before.

Pope Francis headed for New York later in the day and will address the United Nations, and will be in Philadelphia for the weekend for the World Meeting of Families, a large Catholic event that is being held in the United States for the first time since it was created in 1992 during the papacy of Pope John Paul II.

“There’s a sense of awe,” said Eugene Gere, the prinicipal of Donovan Catholic High School, as the 900 or so students who comprise the student body of the high school and the seventh and eighth grades at St. Joseph Grammar School sat in the pews of the church listening to remarks from Father Scott Shaffer before the pope’s speech began.

At the same time, Gere said, there was a desire to incorporate fun into the day as a way to capture the spirit of joy and excitement that Pope Francis’s visit has stirred. To that end, the day included cream puffs -- the pope’s favorite snack -- and selfies with a life-sized cutout of the pontiff on the school’s quad, which school officials were urging students to retweet.

“We’re able to be academic but have fun, too,” Gere said.

The cream puffs and the selfies came after the “Pope” greeted students on the football field, riding in the Donovan Catholic version of a “Popemobile” while the school filmed material for its internal television show and for a segment of ”Real Faith TV,” which is produced by the Diocese of Trenton.

“Catholic means ‘universal,’ “ Gere said, “ ‘we come together.’ We are coming together and welcoming this man of peace.”

The message of coming together has been coming through loud and clear in the teachings of Pope Francis, he said.

“There’s a quote out there that a pastor should smell of his flock,” Gere said, meaning be engaged with people, and that has been something Pope Francis has done.

“This pope has changed the dialogue,” he said. “He is returning to the way Jesus preached.”

Brielle Anvario, a freshman, agreed with the principal.

“This pope cares about us,” she said. “He’s just such an amazing man.” His message of family and love was inspiring, she said.

“I felt really special, like he was talking to me,” said Leanna Brower, a freshman, adding that she felt inspired to delve more deeply into Catholicism.

Members of the school’s campus ministry echoed those sentiments.

Maria Heitmann, a junior, said the pope’s message about focusing less on the pain and the bad things of the past, instead learning from them and concentrating more on repeating the good things that have been done resonated with her.

“I felt really inspired,” she said.

Kathryn Milewski, a senior, said she liked his messages about family.

“I think all of us are included in that human family; he didn’t exclude anyone,” she said.

Joanne Holler, a senior, said she was glad to see him tackling social issues.

“That was so powerful,” she said. “He’s a political leader -- people forget that,” and his message reminding of the responsibility to care for the poor and those in need was important, she said.

“We forget about people who need us most because we’re too busy worrying about money and the economy,” she said.

“He encouraged us to be courageous,” Rebecca Rosenberg, a senior, said. “And then he talked about issues right there to our political leaders,” she said, referring to his statements covering a host of touchy topics, from abortion to global warming to immigration.

But the students also believe that his approach will help to draw Catholics -- particularly those of their generation -- toward a deeper faith, which they see as a positive step toward a more peaceful future.

“He’s really modernized the Catholic Church,” Kathryn Milewski said, “because he’s able to relate to them. He’s been able to draw people in without changing church doctrine.”

“There’s a sense of what Jesus really preached, that everyone is loved,” Maria Heitmann said.

The students also were impressed with his humility and his willingness to put aside the glitz and the glamour that have typically accompanied the ascension to the papacy.

“He moved out of the big mansion into a small house,” Kathryn Milewski said. ”He lives a simple life and has shown how fulfilling it can be.”

Mary Fitamant, who came to Donovan Catholic after her previous school, Holy Family, closed, said the pope’s speech to Congress conveyed how he is elsewhere, in the way he reaches out to people. She said a member of the school’s faculty had traveled to the Vatican and had an opportunity to speak with him. At the time, a member of the Holy Family faculty was ill, Mary said, and the man who was speaking with Pope Francis asked the pope to pray for the woman.

“(Pope Francis) called her right then and spoke with her,” Mary said. “How many people can say the pope called them?”

“He’s making me more proud to be a Catholic,” she said.

“It was really inspiring to listen to him speak,” said Sam Burton, a senior. “We were watching history. It was amazing.”

(Photos by Karen Wall)