This series of Blogs began with the August 9th entry. If you missed the previous, you might want to back up and get caught up.
Last writing I mentioned the "dramatic" entry of Mom and Dad into the Silverdome. They were a bit overwhelmed by the large numbers lined up at the gate waiting to clear and be admitted. They thought that they could not and should not tackle that line. They were ready to head back to the car to sit and wait until all was finished but then I reached into my attache case.
Inside of it I had the vestments I would be wearing for the Mass, lists of the ministers who would be working with me and also several security tags.
You see, along with having to deal with officialdom from those Downtown Offices, mostly the Worship Office, and having to deal with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, again mostly the Worship Offices, and even on a couple of occasions with representatives from the Vatican regarding procedures and protocols, it was necessary to deal with Washington government officials.
Specifically, Secret Service was involved. Security and physical well-being was involved.
John Paul II was not just a religious leader; he was a visiting head of state. The Vatican is a foreign government recognized by the United States.
And some years before there had been an assassination attempt on John Paul's life right in the Vatican. A second attempt had likewise been made during a visit to Fatima and well before these attempts, while Paul VI was visiting the Philippines, an attempt had been made on his life.
Popes are not exempt from such attempts and the United States government was not going to risk the embarrassment of such happening on our soil.
And so Secret Service was involved in the details of this trip.
And there were meetings with Secret Service agents in which every little detail was set out and scrutinized. As my "team" was put together, each was screened by Secret Service before final approval. Then as the volunteers for those 734 ministry positions were named, each filled out a form that, while they probably were unaware of it, was submitted to Secret Service and each and every one of that number, likewise, was screened and approved for security clearance.
Then came the next question.
How will we know who your people are?
How can we identify them?
While they would have been screened for security clearance, they would be just so many faces in a crowd, a vast sea of faces.
They needed to be identifiable.
Will they be wearing uniforms? No.
Can you get them to all wear the same outfits? I doubt it.
Will they have some sort of vestments? Some will.
Can't you get vestments to all of them? I don't think so.
Well then, how can we identify them?
It was finally resolved that they would each be issued a colorful, distinctive tag or badge to wear. Each would be numbered and Secret Service would have a record of who had what number and they would also have the background checks for those names and numbers.
The tags would be issued at the time of rehearsals and would be required for admission on the day of the Mass.
I was given a few extras for any "just in case" situations. Mine were to stay with me at all times unless an emergency arose in. We would be covered for any last minute matters.
And one of those last minute matters was getting my parents from standing in the long, waiting entry line and into the building ASAP.
And so they got tagged and admitted and as soon as I got them to their seats, off came those badges and back they went into my attache case.
But they did the trick!
Oh, and yes, I had one as well. I had to be wearing one of those identifiable tags to move around the building as I had to. And since I was the one actually issuing the badges, I had the pick of the lot for the one I would wear.
I still have it. And here is a photo of the one I called mine. I picked it myself for me.
And I selected its number deliberately!
The Rehearsal! - next time; so please come back!
Meantime, Keep Praying . . . and Stay Safe!
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