Catholic students on school trip to Vatican City witness what would be Pope's final blessing
BROOKLYN (WABC) -- A group of students from Brooklyn were in Rome on a school trip and were able to see the Pope in what would be his final blessing.
After finding out the Pope passed away on Monday, the group stayed in Italy to pay their respects to Pope Francis at Saint Peter's Basilica.
Sophia Perrella and her sister Emma beamed from ear to ear standing in packed St. Peter's Square on Easter to see what would be the Pope's final blessing.
"It made me feel like holy.," Emma said.
"He had enough strength to like talk and he held up his hand like this and blessed us and I just felt blessed and closer to God when he said that," Sophia said.
It was a divine trip for the girls and their mother from Brooklyn to be feet away from the Pontiff as he rode by in the popemobile.
"Everybody was so full of excitement. And you could feel the love and wholesome sort of devotion to being a Catholic," mother Andrea Perrella said.
They did not know the first time they would see Pope Francis at the Vatican on Easter would be the last.
"We all got in a circle and started praying," Perrella said.
The students from St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Academy were in Rome on a school trip planned for the Jubilee year, but capped off by an hours-long wait to view the pope as he lie in state at St. Peter's Basilica.
"I just said hey look this is just a significant moment. You know obviously we're sad and we certainly wanted to offer our prayers. And pay our respects. But the meaning of just being apart of history is something that goes beyond anything else - that's a moment they'll never forget. It was really lucky to see him the day before," Frank Carbone, President of St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Academy said.
If all of that wasn't enough to see and experience, the students also got to visit the body of St. Stan, the saint their church and school is named after.
The Patron saint of youth.
Bringing their faith full circle.
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