A chance to see the pope
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on September 21, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Mick and Karin O'Donnell of Dudley are among the lucky ticket holders who will get the chance to see Pope Francis speak in Washington, D.C., this week. The two are admirers of the pope, and when they learned of his first visit to America, they contacted U.S. Rep. Walter Jones to be in the audience on the west lawn of the White House.
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
The O'Donnells have been reading about Pope Francis and thinking about what he might say during his speech in preparation for their trip.
Even before it was announced that Pope Francis would visit the U.S., Mick and Karin O'Donnell were ardent admirers.
The night preceding his becoming the 266th leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Mrs. O'Donnell dreamed that the chosen name would be Francis.
"If you could have seen her face when they announced it," her husband said with a smile.
"I just about cried," she added. "Maybe I felt it was time for a kinder, gentler world perspective of God's love. And certainly, we would think of St. Francis of Assisi in that category, somebody who could bring us together."
And then they learned about the papal visit to meet with the president and address Congress later this month.
"It all started out on a whim," O'Donnell said. "I said, 'Gee, it would be great to see him.'"
So O'Donnell took action.
Having met with Congressman Walter Jones while teaching an English as a Second Language class, he said he felt comfortable enough to make that call.
"I said, 'Hey, this may be an outrageous thing to ask, but I presume there might be tickets for the pope's address to joint members of Congress,'" he said.
The effort paid off.
The Dudley couple secured two tickets for the west lawn, where a viewing area will be set up to watch on a large Jumbotron.
"But they said sometimes this pope goes out afterwards and addresses the people," Mrs. O'Donnell said.
Regardless of the outcome, it is a major event and the unpredictability factor is part of the charm, she said. O'Donnell, 75, likens it to another significant event his father had shared many years ago.
"I can remember my dad hitchhiked to Washington, D.C., when Roosevelt was inaugurated," O'Donnell said. "He didn't talk much about it, just the fact that he had gone."
As a lifelong Catholic, O'Donnell's desire to be in the audience for the pope's visit is especially symbolic.
"Mom and Dad had a particularly different outlook on things and Pope Francis seems to reflect a lot of the attitude that they had," he said, adding that the fact that Pope Francis is also the first Jesuit pope is personally meaningful. He said that eight years of his own education were under the Jesuits.
"I think we can see authenticity," Mrs. O'Donnell said. "The pope is authentic and the people that he has pulled around him are authentic people. You're getting rid of a lot of the hierarchy."
Unlike her husband of 48 years, Mrs. O'Donnell is not Catholic. She is a Lutheran, attending Good Shepherd Lutheran Church while her husband's affiliation is with the Catholic parish on Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. But spiritually, she says, they're "not that much apart."
She respects Pope Francis, she says, "as far as looking at Christian leaders who really care about expressing what I consider the true love of Christ and the mission, which is bringing people together, to heal them, to unify them, to bring hope. Throughout the world, well, of course, we all tend to think our way is better. We need to get past some of that and look at our commonalities and needs."
Her own background has always included an openness to other religions. The product of a military family, when her father was stationed in Japan she studied Buddhism and the Shinto religions, in part, to have a better understanding.
She met her husband while he was in the Air Force. Now retired, last year O'Donnell launched ROC, or Retirees on Call, to link military retirees with deployed and active duty families. It is poised to go broader and be used by military installations in the near future.
Mrs. O'Donnell is a retired educator who continues to teach part time at Wayne Community College and also teaches swimming at the YMCA. They have three daughters, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
The trek to D.C. for the Sept. 24 visit is definitely an unanticipated highlight for the couple.
"I feel a closeness to Pope Francis that I never felt with any of the other popes from Pope Pius XII on up," O'Donnell said. "He has struck me as the type of person, if I met him and got ready to say goodbye, I wouldn't hesitate to give him a hug."
"Sometimes you don't know what something means until you get there," his wife added. "You follow your gut feelings -- this is important. Important things could be said, with ideas touched or ideas solidified, but I want to support the idea that religious people from around the world really can address our legislators. We have to be open to dialogue in ideas and it seems to me that a lot of Americans don't want to be open to one side or the other."
Aware that the visit will draw large crowds, quickly filling up hotel rooms -- "even military bases have no room," O'Donnell said -- the couple made arrangements to stay with a friend.
But it will all be worth it to be that close to a sitting pope, they said.
"I have waited 75 years for somebody like this to be in Rome," O'Donnell said.
"It's like Woodstock, with the pope," his wife chimed in.