LINCOLN (SNR) - Father Andrew Schwenka, assistant pastor of St. Wenceslaus Parish in Wahoo, met Pope Francis during a papal audience June 15 in Rome.
Father Schwenka was in Italy on a pilgrimage with 22 students and parents from Bishop Neumann High School in Wahoo and Aquinas High School in David City. Their 10-day pilgrimage allowed them to see the civic and religious history of the city of Rome and the Catholic Church.
“We visited St. Peter’s Basilica, attended the Wednesday papal audience, explored the Scavi excavations to the tomb of St. Peter, made pilgrimages to other basilicas in Rome, saw Caravaggio’s paintings and the Sistine Chapel and visited the medieval city of Assisi to encounter the lives of St. Francis, St. Clare and Blessed Carlo Acutis,” Father Schwenka said.
One of the highlights of the group’s pilgrimage was their attendance at the pope’s weekly audience. Held every Wednesday, 30,000 to 40,000 people from around the world attend the papal audience to hear the pope speak about a matter of contemporary and Church interest.
Several months ago Father Schwenka told Father Kenneth Borowiak, pastor of St. Michael Parish in Lincoln, that he was taking a pilgrimage to Rome. His first priestly assignment was as assistant pastor at St. Michael Parish in Lincoln 2019-21.
It was during this time that the construction of a new Church began.
St. Michael Parish is nearing the completion of the construction of a new church that has been 17 years in the making. Father Borowiak asked Father Schwenka if he would be willing to take the cornerstone for the new Church to Rome and ask Pope Francis to bless it. Father Schwenka said if it could be arranged he would be glad to take the stone to Rome.
Father Borowiak contacted Bishop James Conley, the Bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln and asked if he would write a letter requesting the encounter.
Bishop Conley wrote to Archbishop George Ganswein, prefect of the Papal Household and the personal secretary to retired Pope Benedict XVI, and the encounter was arranged.
Father Schwenka carried the stone in a personally-made bag. He arrived at St. Peter’s Basilica Tuesday, June 14 to pick up the group’s tickets to the papal audience at a location called the Bronze Doors.
“It was there that I found out we had received one “Bacio la Mano” or “Kiss the Hand” ticket to meet the Holy Father,” Father Schwenka said.
The group arrived at St. Peter Square at 6:45 a.m. in order to get good seats for the audience. The group sat in the general seating of the square. Once they were settled, Father Schwenka took the cornerstone to the special reserved seating in the front row next to the platform where the pope sits during the audience.
“It was very hot and there was no shade for us as we sat in the sun until the audience began at 9 a.m.,” Father Schwenka said.
The Holy Father arrived in the square several minutes before the beginning of the audience, seated in the popemobile which drove through the crowds of pilgrims gathered.
The Holy Father was then driven up to the platform where he sat for the audience. In recent weeks Pope Francis has dealt with a flare-up of pain in his right knee in addition to a long-time case of sciatica, which also causes pain in the legs. He has at times been forced to use a wheelchair. Father Schwenka said it appeared that Pope Francis was in a significant amount of pain as he tried to move from the popemobile to the chair.
“It appeared as though he did not want anyone to help him,” Father Schwenka said. “It was very gracious of the Holy Father to still meet with all of us despite his own suffering.”
During the June 15 audience Pope Francis talked about the need that Christians have to care especially for the elderly. His talk was summarized in eight different languages.
Following that, those in attendance prayed the Our Father with the pope and he bestowed his blessing upon everyone gathered.
At the end of audiences the pope meets bishops and dignitaries from around the world and blesses items that have been brought to him from virtually every continent.
Following the delivered remarks, those who had an encounter ticket were invited to follow in line to the front steps where they walked up and met the pope one individual or group at a time.
At least 10 bishops from around the world were in front of Father Schwenka.
“I was sweating like crazy, holding the cornerstone,” Father Schwenka said. “It was 95 degrees and the stone had been baking in the sun and was probably 130° holding it. One of the papal ushers asked if he could hold it for me so that I could shake the Holy Father’s hand and speak more easily,” he said.
When Father Schwenka’s turn came, the two spoke in Italian.
“I said to him, “Hello Holy Father. My name is Father Andrew Schwenka and I am a priest from the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska in the United States. We are building a new church and the people of the parish of St. Michael in Lincoln, ask you to bless this cornerstone and to pray for our parish.”
Pope Francis very willingly blessed the cornerstone and placed his hand upon it.
“At the end of our conversation he said in English, ‘Please pray for me,’” Father Schwenka said. “I said we certainly would and thanked him.”
Father Schwenka lived and studied in Rome from 2015-19 at the Pontifical North American College while he attended classes at the Pontifical University the Angelicum. His studies focused on the writings and works of St. Thomas Aquinas.
While there he received a bachelor’s degree of sacred theology and began to work on a license in sacred theology with an emphasis on Thomistic studies.
