Papa-mania

He is here.

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in São Paulo yesterday afternoon. He stepped out of the plane to see gray skys and spittles of rain. The temperature was a very unwelcoming 10 degrees Celsius. He flew by private jet from Italy earlier in the morning and listened to opera musica while sipping orange juice en route to São Paulo.

Today the Pope is meeting with President Lula and will address the youth of the church at o estádio do Pacaembu. No word yet on whether the Pope found his breakfast agreeable or not. Stay tuned.

The amount of coverage dedicated to the Pope's visit this week is bordering on insane right now, and rightly so because people go crazy for this guy. According to one report, people began congregating at five in the morning today outside the monastery of São Bento where the Pope slept last night hoping to catch a glimpse of his holiness.

I'm not sure if there is a word for people who awake in the wee small hours of the morning to peak in on 80 year-old men, but allow me to suggest one: Popaphiles.

The traffic has been ungodly today and three of my classes have been canceled because of Benedict's visit. It's like another holiday.

Yesterday, I tried to get a slice of Papa-pie for myself, waiting outside of São Bento for an hour and an half in the cold. Published reports said the Pope would be arriving at 6:45 in the evening. The helicopters hovered above, the police were out in full force and a good crowd had gathered outside the monastary. The TV crews were firmly entrenched, and I saw the flags of Argentina and Chile in the crowd along with a giant-size version of Nossa Senhora Aparecida. There was even a small balcony with a bullet-proof bubble for the Pope to gaze off.

"Queremos ver o papa!" (We want to see the Pope!) was the cheer of choice along with sporadic bouts of singing, but o papa never appeared.

I left at 8:00 cold, hungry and Pope-less.

Many of the Brazilians I have talked to said they prefered John Paul II over the current Pope, but you wouldn't know this guy had detractors by attending the rallies. His visit is obviously meaningful to many people here, but I'm not even sure if the people who stood outside in the cold at 5 AM could tell you why.

But they might be able to tell you what the Pope had for breakfast.

UPDATE: I watched most of the Pope's youth gathering on TV and was actually pretty impressed. 35,000 jovens from all over Latin America were in attendance to address concerns such as the lack of jobs for college graduates, child slavery, prostitution and the environment. I haven't seen much evidence of empowered youth in this country, so it was an encouraging event.

The division between church and state can get a little hazy in countries that are predominantly Catholic. That makes changing the world a bit more confusing on this level.