Home • About • Calendar • People • Forum • Archive
April 7, 2005 • Volume 13 Number 15
Chorale President Brigid Tobin '97 greets Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1997, with Chorale Director John Finney standing just to the right. (Photo courtesy of Brigid Tobin)
Former Chorale member recalls '97 meeting with late pontiff
By Sean Smith
Chronicle Editor
The University Chorale of Boston College has over the years enjoyed a special connection to the Vatican, and with the late Pope John Paul II. Every four years since 1989, the group has traveled to Rome during spring break, and on some of those occasions performed for the pope.
"It's become a tradition," said Chorale Director John Finney, the successor to the group's long-time leader, Alexander Peloquin, who brought the Chorale to Rome in 1989 and 1993, the year he retired from Boston College. "If you're in the Chorale all four years of college, you'll get to go to Rome."
The last Chorale visit that included an audience with the pope happened in 1997, and was especially memorable because no one in the group knew it was going to take place.
As Finney explains, the Chorale was scheduled to give a public performance for the daily Mass in St. Peter's Square, at which the pope would be present: "What happens is, the pope reads the name of your group, and you're supposed to get up and sing."
That experience would have been enough, recalls Brigid Tobin '97, who was Chorale president that year. "We could've left Rome right then and there, and it would have been enough. You just have no idea how beautiful, how inspiring it is to be in the Vatican."
But behind the scenes, Finney said, then-University Chaplain Richard Cleary, SJ, an adjunct Chorale member, had put in a request for the Chorale to give a private concert in the Papal Audience Hall ("Not completely private," added Finney. "There were some other Vatican or church officials present, so it was more like 200-300 people."). The group learned about this addition to their itinerary only a day before the event.
For their private concert, the Chorale sang Ludovico Viadana's "Exsultate Justi" and "Tollite Hostias," a Camille Saint-Saens piece Tobin says is "our signature song ó we've sung it all over the world, as well as at our Christmas concerts." If any members of the group were nervous or anxious about the setting or the audience, they didn't show it, says Finney: "When they sang, they were exuberant."
After their performance, the Chorale was invited to stay for a photo opportunity, and John Paul II made his way to the group and began greeting the members. "People were so moved, they were practically in tears ó it was amazing to be in the presence of such a great man," said Finney.
Tobin, as the Chorale president, had the honor of standing with the pope for a minute, which seemed to last an eternity yet was over before she knew it. "We just stood there talking, and he asked me 'How has your time in Rome been? What are you studying at Boston College?'
"He welcomed me like he would anyone else. It felt completely normal and usual. He didn't have a commanding presence; he just wanted to know about me.
"It was the closest to Heaven you can feel on Earth, but it wasn't until afterwards that I realized the magnitude of what had happened, and I was overwhelmed with emotion."
What made the moment even more gratifying, adds Tobin, was she was able to share it with her sister, Katie, a sophomore at the time who also sang with the Chorale. "You can't see her in the photo taken of me with the pope, but we know where she's standing."
The sisters called their parents to tell them "we had shaken hands with a saint," said Tobin. "My parents asked me, 'Did you kiss his ring?' but I hadn't even thought to do that."
The pope was on a retreat for the Chorale's visit to Rome in 2001, said Finney, and prospects for another performance for John Paul II during this year's trip were unlikely at the outset. "The students were hopeful, of course, but they were on top of the news and knew that he was in ill health," he said. "Still, the group had a phenomenal time this year in Rome. It's an experience no one will ever forget."
For Tobin and her sister, who now share an apartment in Connecticut, the memories of the 1997 visit came rushing back during the weekend of the pope's death. Fittingly enough, the two were on campus along with their parents to see Tobin's youngest sister, Erin '05, perform with The Dynamics, a student a cappella group.
"I was back at the place where it all started," said Tobin. "We reminisced about our experience with the pope and about BC in general. Even though only Katie and I were there in Rome, we are all connected to BC in some way." •