Twelve young people chosen from five continents had lunch with Pope Francis at the Sao Joaqim Palace in Brazil during World Youth Day (WYD) in July.
Among them was a young Perth woman, Josephine Yustira, who told The Record the memory of having lunch with the Pope would stay with her forever.
Before lunch the 12 volunteers, together with the Bishop of Rio de Janeiro and Pope Francis, prayed the Rosary followed by the Angelus.
Lunch began with grace and Miss Yustira compared the occasion of having lunch with the Pope to having lunch with her grandfather.
“The Bishop of Rio De Janeiro was there and he is like your dad,” she said.
“You see him all the time but the Pope is like your grandfather, you don’t see him so often.”
Miss Yustira described the lunch as “interactive”; even though the Pope cannot speak English, he understands the language and with the aid of translators the language barrier was not an issue.
However, it wasn’t the language barrier that halted conversation, but the fact that no one could believe they were having lunch with the Pope.
“The first 15 minutes was quite awkward,” Miss Yustira said.
“Everyone was stunned and nervous, you don’t get to see the Pope every day, let alone have lunch with him but the Pope was joking with us. He said, ‘Please say something,’ and we were joking back and saying it’s not ever yday we have lunch with the Pope.”
Pope Francis asked each individual about their involvement in the Church.
Miss Yustira told the Pope she was part of the Indonesian Youth Catholic Charismatic Group in Perth, also known as the Turrist Ministry, as well as a special minister at St Thomas Moore Parish in Bateman.
The Pope’s questions even made the volunteers around the table cry.
“He asked us why young people suffer,” Miss Yustira said. “He also told us that God loves us so much and he wants to use us to spread the love God has for us and that we are the future of the Catholic Church.”
Pope Francis told the group to pray to Mary by using a story to convey his message to the volunteers. “He said if a young child has a problem he always runs to his mother,” Miss Yustira said.
“The child asks for her comfort, so like the child the Pope told us to go to Mother Mary and say the Rosary more.”
The lunch was a big surprise for Miss Yustira, who had had doubts about WYD.
“When Pope Benedict resigned my faith was shaken,” she admitted.
“I thought to myself were we going to have a Pope for World Youth Day?”
While Miss Yustira’s fears were settled with the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope, her arrival in Brazil was not without its obstacles.
“I didn’t have any friends and I didn’t speak Portuguese or Spanish, only English,” she said.
“I thought, God if you want to use me as it is than here I am.”
Miss Yustira was assigned to the information centre at the Ganto Gallo Station at the Metro. She was given food, accommodation and transportation and credits her position as a volunteer for bringing her out of her comfort zone.
She recalls Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB saying in his homily at the commissioning Mass to be open, be ready for surprises and to expect nothing.
“Having lunch with the Pope was the best moment throughout my volunteer work,” she said.