It’s not every day that lay people get to meet the Pope. For some, that day never comes. For Dominic Ramler, 8, that day came on Sept. 24.
The third-grade student at Westerville St. Paul the Apostle School had wanted to meet Pope Leo since he was elected earlier this year.
When Ramler was seven months old, doctors discovered that he had congenital glaucoma. The condition, which occurs in about 1 in 10,000 births, consists of chronic and progressive visual neuropathies that result in blindness.
Since his diagnosis, Ramler has undergone 14 surgeries – seven in each eye – and suffers from low vision. It is a matter of time until he completely loses his sight, but it is uncertain when that will be. Blindness could occur in a year or several years down the road.
Ramler’s parents, Darren and Jacqui (Racine) Ramler, want their son to do as much as possible and see various places before losing his vision.
“Dominic voiced to us earlier this year that one of his bucket list places would be to go to Italy, and to Rome specifically, and meet the Pope,” Jacqui recalled.
“For the past year, he’s been telling us that he wants to be a priest, and he’s now kind of changed it up. He’s now saying that he wants to be a deacon because he wants to also get married.”
Jacqui noted that her 8-year-old is “very into” his faith. Asked what he likes about it, Dominic replied, “I was just born to love the Catholic faith.”
He made his First Holy Communion last spring around the time that Pope Leo was elected pontiff in May.
“Both of those heightened his joy around the Catholic faith and also made him want to go to Italy even more,” Jacqui said. “He said that his dream was to meet the Pope.”
Jacqui’s cousin, Ashley Kovacs, an Olympic track and field throws coach, and her husband, Joe, a three-time silver medalist in men’s shot put, gifted the Ramlers with their airplane miles so the third-grader could take a trip of his choosing.
Dominic’s choice was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Vatican.
Jacqui immediately got to work to make the trip happen. In June, she wrote the Holy See a letter explaining her son’s glaucoma and requested disability seating.
Dominic’s vision does not extend much past his face. If seated with the general audience, he likely would be unable to see the Pope.
Within a couple of weeks, the Ramlers received an official letter from the Vatican’s Prefecture of the Papal Household confirming three tickets would be reserved for them to attend a papal audience at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 24.
It was unclear where the Ramlers would sit, but on the morning of the 24th, as they picked up their tickets, it indicated specialty seating. The family was seated in the third row from Pope Leo.
“It was a dream come true,” Dominic said, adding that he wrote a narrative about the experience.
After the papal audience, the Ramlers joined rows of people in disability seating coming forward to greet the Pope under an awning. They each shook his hand.
“I don’t know if he could tell by the way that we said, ‘Ciao’ that we weren’t Italian, but then he started speaking English,” Jacqui recalled. “In English, he said, ‘Where are you from?’”
After sharing that they traveled from Columbus, Ohio, the Ramlers told Pope Leo that Dominic wanted to be a priest. For Halloween the year prior, he had dressed the part.
The family showed the Holy Father a photo of Dominic in costume.
“My mom actually made the chasuble (a vestment worn for the celebration of Mass),” Jacqui said. “He specifically asked for green last year because Halloween is during Ordinary Time.”
The Ramlers informed the Pope of Dominic’s glaucoma, which will lead to blindness, and shared a photo from his surgery earlier this year. They requested a blessing for Dominic.
“He said, ‘Absolutely,’” Jacqui recalled. “Pope Leo bent down, placed his hands on Dominic’s eyes and gave him the most beautiful blessing.”
“It means the world to me to be able to have him experience that, not even with low vision, just in general, that this was his dream, this is what he expressed. Seeing your child’s dream come true before your eyes is unlike anything I could ever dream of,” Jacqui added.
She, Darren and Dominic each received a rosary after meeting the Pope.
The family also received tickets for a private tour of the Vatican Museums designed for low-vision and blind individuals. Dominic was permitted to touch several statues and articles.
He was also given a tactile picture of the Sistine Chapel to feel an imitation of paintings in the chapel while a tour guide explained how they look.
Asked his favorite part of the trip, Dominic responded, “Meeting Pope Leo and eating pasta.”
The Ramlers returned home to their daughter, Camryn, 6, and son, Elliot, 4, who also attend St. Paul School. Grandparents Deacon Dean – who serves at Columbus St. Josephine Bakhita Parish – and Robin Racine, and Tom and Sharon Ramler, helped watch the younger two.
Dominic brought back a stuffed animal, journal from the Vatican Museums and prayer cards with medallions for each of his classmates.
“This experience for our son was beyond our biggest wish for him,” Jacqui said.
“We hope and pray he can bring forth all the images of this trip and that day meeting Pope Leo when his vision fades.”
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