Private audience with pope given to small-town parish delegates

You might think every priest dreams of meeting the pope.

But Father Jack Ho never really entertained the idea, focusing instead on his congregation in the regional township of Childers, about 300 kilometres north of Brisbane.

That changed one night as he dined with two of his parishioners, ahead of a long-planned pilgrimage to Rome.

He was sitting around the dinner table with Joe and Jillian Russo, when the trio realised they would all be visiting the Italian capital last month.

And it was from that realisation that someone suggested trying to schedule a meeting with Pope Leo XIV while they were in town.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Vatican City and less than 2km from the supreme pontiff's home in the Apostolic Palace, Keith Pitt was working away as Australia's ambassador to the Holy See.

Mr Pitt also happened to have served as the region's federal MP for more than a decade.

"And as we were joking around about this possibility, suddenly it's not much of a joke anymore and the next minute [Mr Pitt] was preparing a brief to send to the Vatican," Father Ho said.

"We heard back the day before the general audience that we were granted a 'baciamano', which is this brief opportunity to be able to greet and meet the pope in person."

A sense of 'incredible warmth'

Mr Russo and the group headed to St Peter's Square inside Vatican City.

"When we arrived on Wednesday, there were thousands of people in the square and we're sitting four rows from the pope, waiting to see what might happen, and we got the opportunity to talk to him," Mr Russo said.

"It was just so unreal.

"We got to meet him and spoke to him for, I suppose it seemed like a long time, but it was probably a minute and a half."

Father Ho described the meeting as an "incredible moment".

"There was a sense of incredible warmth and Pope Leo is a beautiful person and was able to really be attentive to our conversations, even though there's so many others waiting to see him."

Father Ho said he told the pope of his small Queensland parish, and the adjoining St Joseph's School, which recently celebrated its centenary.

The school of 160 children is home to a small wooden cross made from timber from the very first St Joseph's School, established by the now-canonised Mary MacKillop in Panola, South Australia.

The pope blessed the cross and, as is papal tradition, also gifted the parish a zucchetto, one of his previously worn white skull caps.

The group presented Pope Leo with a small handmade candle, and a year 6 leadership shirt to celebrate the school's history.

Father Ho said the encounter was a reminder for small townships like his, that nothing was impossible.

"So often for small country places, not just churches, but any organisation, they don't have the same level of access to opportunity and resources," he said.

"For us, as a small parish and a country parish, to be able to have that incredible opportunity to meet the pope in Rome, that's been a wonderful blessing.

"It really shows that even though we are a small community, it doesn't mean we give up on the opportunities and give up on the effort.

"Small doesn't mean mediocre. We can be small but mighty."

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