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“It’s a surreal moment that I will always remember for the rest of my life.”
That’s how Harrison Voorhees of Brightwaters described what happened earlier this week on his family vacation to Rome — a chance encounter in St. Peter’s Square that ended with a blessing from the Pope. (Watch below.)
Harrison, a rising senior at Chaminade High School, says it happened during an impromptu visit to the Vatican.
“He was coming around greeting everyone on the Pope-mobile, so I stepped on a chair so I was eye level with him,” Harrison told Greater Long Island. “I wasn’t sure what to say, but knowing he’s from the United States, I yelled out, ‘Chaminade, Long Island!’ He looked at me, so I said it again, and he gave me a thumbs up, then said ‘Long Island’ and gave the sign of the cross — a little blessing for the people of Long Island.”
Harrison’s mom, Frances, said they almost didn’t believe him.
“Afterwards Harrison told us he spoke to the Pope and we were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, sure,’” she said. “Then he said, ‘No, the Pope actually said Long Island to me.’ And I was like, wait, what?”
Change of plans
The Voorhees family in Rome. (courtesy photos)
The encounter almost didn’t happen. The Voorhees had originally planned to spend the morning at the Colosseum.
“We even talked to the people at the front desk at our hotel, and they advised us to skip the Vatican and go to the Colosseum,” Harrison said. “They said the Pope will only be a little dot in the distance and it will be very crowded. You won’t get close.”
But the family decided any chance to see the Pontiff in person was too important to pass up.
“I go to Chaminade — they’ve instilled a great faith in me,” Harrison said. “Being Catholic is important to all of us, and since the Pope greets everyone on Wednesdays, we changed our plans.”
“The Chaminade Family is honored to see Pope Leo pause to share a moment with rising senior Harrison Voorhees in St. Peter’s Square — an exchange that reflects the spirit of his new papacy and inspires hope for the future of the Church,” said a Chaminade spokesman.
A blessing for L.I.
“How cool that the American Pope, in Rome, is blessing Long Island,” Frances said. “We were all crying, so emotional, because it was so unexpected.”
Harrison even joked that it might have spoiled the rest of the trip.
“We were just two days into the trip and something like that happens?” he said. “Anything else we do in Italy won’t top this — we can end our vacation right now.”
— all photos come courtesy of the Voorhees family.
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