Washington rolls out 'red carpet' for Arkansas youth group

Published: April 26, 2008

By Tara Little
Associate Editor

Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in North Little Rock (Marche) sent 74 people, including 55 youth, to Washington for a chance to see Pope Benedict XVI during his U.S. visit.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in North Little Rock (Marche) sent 74 people, including 55 youth, to Washington for a chance to see Pope Benedict XVI during his U.S. visit.

The story of Christie Powell and her North Little Rock youth group's plight to see Pope Benedict XVI was so well known by the time they got to Washington, D.C., that "people were just laying out the red carpet."

Powell, director of religious education and youth ministry at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, said a reporter at the Washington Post called her at 6:30 a.m. April 17 as the group was driving into the city. She had chartered two tour buses for the 19-hour overnight drive carrying 74 people, 55 of whom were in grades 6 to 12.

Powell said the reporter called to give her directions that would take the group within a block of Nationals Park, the site where the pope would celebrate a public Mass later that morning.

"He said people are coming in by the thousands so you've got to get down here," Powell recalled. "He was so excited."

Through his guidance, the group made it to St. Vincent de Paul Church, which is nearby the stadium. There the Archdiocese of Washington had arranged for the group to watch the Mass on two large TV screens set up at the church. The Arkansas group was the only one to do so.

"It was crazy how they heard about us and just opened their doors," Powell said. "Everybody we met was so good to us. They sent sandwiches over to that little church for us from Nationals Park."

The group was told that the Holy Father's motorcade would pass by the church after the Mass.

"We were standing on the sidewalk and there he went," she said.

Just like the day began, what followed was all "run, run, run."

The group left the church to check into their hotel only to leave again for the Catholic University of America where they had tickets to stand on the lawn to catch a glimpse of the pope as he left his presentation to Catholic educators. These tickets were shared with 4,000 others.

Through it all, there was no time to eat. God provided again.

"We're standing, all these kids in line in the hotel lobby, and this lady walks up, she had some big meeting in a conference room, and said she had all these box lunches, and can she give them to our kids? I said, 'Sure,' because we didn't have time to eat."

"Every corner we turned people were just laying out the red carpet. It was crazy," Powell said. "God was in control of this whole thing."

At the university, they stood within 10 feet of the pope as he made his way to the John Paul II Cultural Center.

"It was amazing," she said. "The kids thought he was a rock star. They were going crazy and were excited and he was waving," she said. "It was unbelievable. I wasn't expecting to feel like I did. It was a wave that came over you. I was overwhelmed."

"We worked so hard and tried so hard to see him and for him to come that close, was just more than my body could take," she said with a laugh.

For her students, she thinks the experience really impacted them.

"There were so many people there. And to see that many of their peers trying to reach the Holy Father," Powell said, to see so many people united trying to see the Holy Father was just exciting for them."

And if that wasn't enough, they got a glimpse of the pontiff a third time. As they were walking to their buses on the CUA campus, Pope Benedict's motorcade drove by.

"We saw him as plain as day," she said. "And I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe this happens like this.'"

The group spent April 18-19 visiting monuments and museums in Washington, D.C. The highlight was attending Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. They got home late in the afternoon of April 20.

Even though she was exhausted from the trip, Powell said she would do it again tomorrow.

"I would go farther. If he comes back, we're there. I don't care where it is in the United States. I mean, it's that rewarding and that awesome."