Way back in March, Pope Francis took up his reign of the Catholic Church. I immediately saw a need to explain the world of Francis/Frances to him since he wasn’t born Francis. I wrote him a letter, posted it on my blog and sent it in to KQED’s radio program, With A Perspective.

Well then I thought in all fairness, Pope Francis might like to be in on his own correspondence. I sent him the letter with a little bit of explanation about it being an English language thing. I looked up his mailing address and learned how to address the pope: His Holiness. I found out the Vatican is it’s own city, state and country. I was one up on the post office clerk. “What country is this going to?” “Oh the Vatican is it’s own city and country,” like I’ve been saying this all my life.

I jokingly thought, “Hey, maybe if I send a letter to the pope, I’ll get an autographed pic!” It works for Selena Gomez fans I’m told.

Now four months later, His Holiness has spoken. I received an 8.5 X 13 cm, European size, (little bigger than 3 X 5 inches) color photo with an “autograph” on the back and the start date of his papacy. And I got a form letter printed on Vatican stationery and a helper’s signature, Monsignor Peter B. Wells, Assessor. He’s a secretariat of state at the Vatican and he speaks a bazillion languages. He’s originally from Oklahoma, just like me. This gets weirder every day, my connection to the pope.

The letter thanks me for my prayers, very, very formally. I did insert some sincere prayers in my direct letter to the Pope. He’s got a big job so I figured he could probably use a boost beyond Frances/Francis advice. So here is the kicker, his “signature” on the back is in Italian: FRANCESco. We REALLY share the same name in my book. Remember, Frances like her and Francis like him? I like how Italians kept the root name, more like “of France,” the definition of our name.

I think my letter got re-routed from The Vatican back to the US, or maybe it never left the country because all communications goes through this place called the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C. Nunciature basically means messenger. I’m hoping my letter made the cut to go all the way to the top; I want him to laugh.  Even His Holiness never sees a word, it’s nice to know there is a correspondence team helping Pope FRANCESco. Their efforts made an extraordinary day at the mailbox for an ordinary mom in California.

P.S.  Thanks for all the clicks to get shoezle into the Top 25 Blogs of Norcal!

Share on Facebook