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Pope Benedict XVI Celebrates Mass in Washington, D.C.

More than 46,000 people attended Pope Benedict's papal Mass at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., on April 17. Benedict is on his first papal visit to the United States this week.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

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The pope was gone in a second, vanished in a blur of shiny black and flashing police lights. He hadn't even looked at the people on the sidewalk, bedraggled from the all-night bus ride from Arkansas.

But who cared?

"That was him!" Powell shrieked. "I saw him!"

Months ago, when they were still holding bingos back home to raise money for their trip and trying in vain to snag tickets for the Mass at Nationals Park, Powell vowed to her Youth Ministry: "We are going to see the pope."

And now they had.

"Woohoooo!" somebody yelled.

The pilgrims from Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in North Little Rock had started Wednesday afternoon, spent the night on the road, got lost in the warren of Washington streets and wound up at the refuge of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, about a block from the stadium.

They did not have stadium tickets, although they did have a chance to see the pope at Catholic University later in the day.

They watched the Mass on two TVs set up by Brother Marx Tyree inside the church. After it ended, they spilled out onto South Capitol Street in hopes of catching a glimpse of Benedict as he went by.

They were excited, exhausted and thankful.

"Just knowing he's a block away, that's what's cool," Rachel Powell, 25, Christie's daughter, said as she waited near St. Vincent de Paul. "It's the closest we've ever been to him. I'll take a block any day."

And then he went whizzing by, 100 feet away, and the sound of bells started from the old church, and the weary faithful who had traveled to the sidewalk on South Capitol Street looked like they were in heaven.

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