Pontiff plaudits

This month’s winner is Custis Haynes of Grass Valley, California:

During the 1953 Easter vacation, my husband, Ed, and I had an audience with Pope Pius XII. We were massed together in the vast Vatican reception hall with a crowd of faithful Europeans and other Americans like us. 

The Pope gave a fluent greeting to each nationality in its own language, and each nationality gave a fervent response.

The Italians roared, “Papa! Papa!” and the French, “Vive le Pape!” The German nuns launched into a rousing hymn.

Then he greeted the Americans — an uneasy moment… until an American serviceman rescued us. 

He shouted, “Yay, Pope!”