Authority | Family | Honor | Marriage | Mother | Perspective

THE POPE’S MOM
The story is told of the visit which the mother of Pope John XXIII made on her son after he had been elected to the papacy and enthroned in Rome. She was an elderly lady, a simple woman, who had worked hard all of her life and had lived within the shadow of poverty. She stood outside the impressive room in the Vatican where the new Pope was meeting important dignitaries in an audience. As the people approached the Pope, they offered their congratulations, bowed and kissed his papal ring. Finally it was the mother’s turn. In good Roman Catholic fashion, she knelt down before her son seated on the dais and she kisses his ring, acknowledging his authority in her spiritual life. Then she did an unusual thing. She held out to him her hand, the one with the wedding ring upon it that she had worn for so long. And she said in the inimitable way of Italian mothers:…