Chapter 2 of 10
Church Dio Padre Misericordioso (Jubilee Church), Rome
And so I said to one of the Swiss Guards who was standing around, you know, could you get some lights so when the Pope comes in, you know, we could see the model. That's what I was here for. And he disappeared. Time went on and I saw it. Nine o'clock, nothing happened. Ten o'clock, there was no... I called the Swiss Guard. I said, you know, how about some lights, some 'luce', you know, we need some lamps, some candles, I don't care. And they disappeared. And time's going on and five minutes before eleven, four Swiss Guard big guys come in and they take the model, which was in a far corner of the room, and they carry it to the door. I said, well, why are you doing that? I mean, I've been here all this time. Why are you bringing the model to the door? They said, so the Pope doesn't have to walk so far. I said, well, that makes sense, but where are the lights? Just then, the Pope appears and the television cameras appear and there was light. So it just shows you have to have faith. After this meeting, and they had chosen a very young priest who was the priest for this area, so it was his church, but there was two other people involved in the whole construction process. One as an advisor, as a professional advisor, because he had experience of building and he was terrific and very helpful. And another was someone from the Vatican to sort of oversee that the building didn't exceed the budget, which was five thousand dollars or something like that. I mean, there's nothing. It was just zero. Everything was given. There was no budget. So I said, well, you know, the budget is so little, maybe I should make some changes, you know, to reduce the size of the church and the community centre so it's less expensive. And they said, no, no, no, you can't change a thing. We like it just the way it is. I said, well, then you've got to find some money somewhere. And it took forever to build because they had to get the concrete given.