Seeing the pope in Amman, via Roslindale

As the pope travelled through Jordan over the weekend, a reader e-mailed to call my attention an interesting local angle: the Jesuit Center of Amman is staffed by priests from the Boston area. Today, I finally connected via e-mail with the Rev. Kevin G. O'Connell, a 70-year-old Jesuit priest from Roslindale who now serves as pastor of an English-language parish in Amman, Sacred Heart, that ministers largely to Filipino domestic workers for affluent Jordanians. I asked Father O'Connell whether he had met the pope, and although he hadn't, he said he got pretty close:

"On Sunday, at the Papal Mass, I was in the crowd within perhaps ten feet of him as he entered the stadium, & I was even a bit closer as he processed out. I had the impression that our eyes met for a fleeting second as he passed, but I'm sure he had no impression of me! Anyway, it was good to be part of the Mass & to facilitate the active participation of many parishioners. It was a moving & encouraging experience, & I found the Pope's homily at the Mass very supportive to all who were there."

Father O'Connell (right) is one of four Jesuits at the Jesuit Center in Amman; the others are veterans of the New England Province mission in Iraq, from which the Jesuits had been expelled. The community's superior is the Rev. Alfred Hicks, a Needham native and former principal of Nativity Prep in Roxbury; also there is the Rev. Denis Como, from Pride's Crossing, who once directed the Chinese Catholic Center in Boston, and the Rev. Clarence Burby, a Baghdad native who ministers to Iraqi refugees in Jordan. O'Connell is an alumnus of BC High and Boston College, has a doctorate from Harvard, and studied theology and then taught at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology. He was ordained by Boston's Cardinal Richard J. Cushing in 1969.

Here's his e-mail to me about the pope's visit:

"Local Christians were pretty excited about the Pope's visit, especially in the last couple of weeks before he arrived. It was a BIG event for a relatively small country like Jordan, & especially for the tiny local Catholic Church.

There are perhaps 80-90 thousand native Jordanian Catholics, more or less evenly divided between Melkites or Byzantine Catholics (called "Roum Katolik" here because of their affinity to the Eastern Roman Empire at Byzantium) & what we Westerners know as Roman Catholics (called "Latine Katolik" here because our roots are in the Latin Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem, begun by the Crusaders & re-established by Pope Pius IX in the mid-1800s), & around 35-38 thousand expatriate Catholics (perhaps 23-26 thousand of the 28-30 thousand Filipino workers here, another 8-10 thousand of the 35-38 thousand Sri Lankan workers here, perhaps 5-8 thousand of the few hundred thousand Iraqi refugees still here, & smaller numbers from many other countries). There are also around 90,000 Orthodox Christians in Jordan, as well as small numbers of Protestants from various denominations.

My own parish here is a special non-territorial parish for English-speaking expatriates & visitors in Amman, the capitol city, with an average weekend attendance of 800-1,000 people, predominantly Filipino. Many of the Filipinos & other Asians work as domestic helpers for families who do not let them out often or at all. Many of them are able to get to Mass only once or twice a month, or only at Christmas & Easter. I have no way of determining how many people consider themselves members of my parish, but I 'guesstimate' it is around or even well over 15-20 thousand!

A lot of effort was put into organizing the schedule for the Pope's visit to Jordan. One highpoint was a very cordial meeting of the Pope & his entourage with Muslim religious leaders & heads of local universities at a large mosque built by the present King Abdulla in memory of his late father, King Hussein. King Abdulla had warmly welcomed the Pope on his arrival at the airport & was there also at the Pope's departure to thank him for the visit & to bid him farewell. That was a unique honor to the Pope by the King, & it was clear that the two leaders had an easy rapport. I hope that this aspect of the Pope's visit will lead to further mutual understanding & respect between Christians & Muslims here in Jordan.

During his stay in Jordan, the Pope visited the traditional site of Jesus' baptism by John in the Jordan River & the sanctuary at Mount Nebo, from which Moses is said to have had his only glimpse of the Promised Land, & he also blessed several different projects of the local church. His remarks on those occasions were generally supportive & encouraging.

Another highpoint of the visit was the Mass that the Pope celebrated on Sunday morning at the soccer stadium in Amman for perhaps 20-30 thousand people. In spite of the size of the crowd & the heat of the sun, it was a very prayerful time. The mood of the crowd was celebratory, & the people sang & sometimes cheered with enthusiasm. At the same time, there was a tone of real reverence during the prayers of the Mass.

There were eight offertory petitions at the Mass, by eight persons chosen to represent different segments of the local Catholic population. I was asked to select two parishioners, one to read a petition in English & the other for a petition in Tagalog, the Filipino national language. I selected an Indian optometrist married to a Jordanian doctor for the petition in English; she has lived in Amman for many years & is an active member of our Sunday evening liturgy. For the petition in Tagalog, I selected a 15-year-old Filipino boy, born in Amman to parents who have worked here for many years. He has grown up in our parish, was confirmed last year, & serves Mass regularly.

I also had the opportunity to select a Filipino family to present one of the cultural gifts to the Pope, & I chose a couple whose marriage I had celebrated about eleven years ago & whose son & daughter I had baptized. Both kids had made first communion in the past few years & are currently altar servers. Members of the parish contributed a small statuette of the Santo Nino from Cebu City & a simple blue stole made in Baguio for the presentation. It was a great pleasure to see members of our expatriate parish so visible in the Mass.

I was privileged to distribute communion at the Papal Mass, first to people seated in one area of the floor of the stadium & then to people seated in a section of the stands. I was struck by the way people waited quietly until communion was brought to their vicinity. It was difficult to approach or be approached in the steeply pitched stands, but it all went well. Several times, people called my attention to aged or infirm persons who couldn't make their way down to where I was standing to distribute communion & helped me climb up to reach them.

Tickets for admission to the Mass were free, but required, & they were only available about 10 days in advance of the event. In the days leading up to the Mass, I distributed more than 2,700 tickets to members of my parish. It was a delight to see them mingled with the local Christians & the many visitors who had come from Lebanon & Syria for the event.

All in all, the Pope's visit was a gift & a grace for the local Catholic & Christian community, a time to celebrate & be encouraged in our faith as a small minority in a Muslim country. It was also time for Muslims & Christians together to welcome a distinguished religious visitor with the warm hospitality for which Jordan is famous. The Pope emphasized that he came as a pilgrim & as a pastor. I hope that his visit brought him consolation & affirmation, especially in view of the much more difficult visit that he has now begun in Israel & Palestine, where tensions are high & the problems seemingly intractable."

(Photo above, by Nasser Nasser/AP, shows Pope Benedict XVI departing Amman on Monday, May 11, 2009. Photo at right, courtesy of the Rev. Kevin O'Connell, shows O'Connell at a Mass for Philippine Independence Day last June.)