“It’s home. I think anyone who comes here, regardless of where they come from or who they are, can get that sense, that feeling that this is their home as well.” By Pablo Kay, Angelus News
Years before becoming an archbishop and later a cardinal, then-Bishop Roger Mahony had a front seat to a special moment in history. Then an auxiliary bishop in Fresno, Mahony arrived in Rome with 23 other American bishops for a month-long study and renewal program in Aug. 1978 just as Pope John Paul I was elected to the papacy. The group of bishops attended every one of the public events of the month-long pontificate and even met with the pope. After his death on Sept. 28, 1978, the U.S. bishops were asked to form an honor guard to accompany the pope’s body from the Vatican’s papal apartments to St. Peter’s Basilica. Here, Bishop Mahony is pictured holding a candle during the procession. Pope John Paul I was declared “blessed” last Sunday, Sept. 4 by Pope Francis. (Submitted photo/Cardinal Roger Mahony)
