Miscommunications can easily happen, but a miscommunication with the Pope might be another story.
Diocesan priest Father Michael Fulton recalled meeting Pope Francis on New Year’s Day 2019 while in seminary with a group of his classmates from the Pontifical College Josephinum. The interaction could be described as nothing short of unforgettable. As a young seminarian, he learned that the Pope could have quite a sense of humor.
While in the Vatican, the class of young men, set to be ordained to the transitional diaconate later that spring, were invited to serve Mass – the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God – at St. Peter’s Basilica. They gathered early New Year’s morning in a back-side chapel at the basilica in preparation for Mass with Pope Francis.
“We were all lined up,” Father Fulton recalled. “They told us no selfies, nothing weird with the Pope – ‘Don’t you dare’ – and so, we’re all waiting, and then, he appears out of nowhere.”
The Holy Father had emerged through a back entrance in the right corner of the basilica. Clergy informed the Pope that seminarians were there to greet him.
With a smile, Pope Francis made his way down the line of seminarians, who were eager to meet him. Father Fulton remembered each seminarian had something to say to the Holy Father. Most spoke in English or shared a few words in Italian.
Father Fulton, unable to speak Italian, was, however, fluent in Spanish – Pope Francis’ native language.
“I didn’t have anything funny or smart to say, so I just told him in Spanish that we’re praying for him,” he recalled, while shaking the Pope’s hand.
Estamos rezando por ti, Santo Padre. We’re praying for you, Holy Father.
“He’s still shaking and squeezing my hand, and he responds back in Italian. He says a few words, and I was a little bit nervous. I giggle a little bit, and I just said, ‘Si ́, si ́’ (yes, yes) to whatever he had asked me, and then he looked at me funny,” Father Fulton remembered.
The Pope, continuing to shake the young seminarian’s hand, repeated the question.
“I was like, ‘Oh, shoot; he repeated himself. Oh, what’s he saying? Oh, no.’ And then I said, ‘Si ́’ again,” he recalled. “He looked at me very seriously.”
Unbeknownst to Father Fulton, the Holy Father asked, in Italian, “For or against me?” The Pope had jokingly inquired whether he was praying for or against him.
Father Fulton said he then put two and two together. He understood Pope Francis’ question and quickly tried to clarify his prayer intentions.
“I freaked out, said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, Holy Father, of course we’re praying for you,’” he recalled. “He’s shaking my hand, and I’m sweating bullets, and he’s laughing; he’s pointing a finger. He’s like, ‘Ah!’”
The chapel full of seminarians, clergy and the Pope was filled with laughter. Pope Francis then joked that it took Father Fulton a second to think of his answer to the question.
His seminarian classmates, meanwhile, were equally terrified. They worried Father Fulton had uttered something bad to the Pope and was going to embarrass them, he recalled.
Later, after their meeting in the chapel, his classmates were eager to know what had transpired with the Holy Father.
“Everyone ran at me and said, ‘What the heck did you say to the Pope, Fulton?’ And I said, ‘I’m not sure, but I know for sure that I’m never going to be a bishop.’”
Father Michael Fulton, a priest of the Diocese of Columbus, currently serves as parochial vicar at St. John Paul II Scioto Catholic Parish in Portsmouth. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2020 and met Pope Francis, who died April 21 at age 88, a year before his priestly ordination.