April 30, 2025 // Diocese

Local Family Shares Experience of Being in Rome for Easter, Pope’s Funeral

Denise Fedorow

Freelance Writer

Virginia Muñoz, a parishioner of St. John the Evangelist Church in Goshen and principal of St. John Catholic School, planned a two-week trip to Rome for her daughter’s 15th birthday to see the canonization of “the millennial saint,” Blessed Carlo Acutis, and to spend Holy Week and Easter in the Eternal City.

When Muñoz made the plans last November, she had no idea they would be in Rome at such a historical time – to see Pope Francis’ final Easter message and be there when the Holy Father passed away and was laid to rest.

Muñoz said she decided to take both of her oldest daughters – 16-year-old Camila and the recently turned 15-year-old Xochitl – for the first-ever Jubilee of Teenagers, which was to include the canonization of Carlo Acutis. With the death of Pope Francis, the canonization has been postponed. Muñoz’s husband, Giovani, who is also one of the deacons at St. John, stayed home with the family’s younger children. Muñoz said she decided to ask her mother and her sisters to join them, saying they were hesitant at first because they had never traveled abroad apart from trips to Mexico.

“So, my mom, my two sisters, and each sister has one daughter with them, so it’s turned into a girl’s trip,” Muñoz said. Her family members are long-time parishioners at St. Michael Catholic Church in Plymouth.

Muñoz told Today’s Catholic that she had seen Pope Francis two other times – in Philadelphia in 2015 for the World Meeting of Families and two years ago at World Youth Day in Portugal. Her daughters also saw him in Philadelphia, she said, but they were young.

“But in Philadelphia, we were far away; on Easter Sunday, we were in the front row,” Muñoz shared from Rome.

Even though she’s seen Pope Francis before, it was still a special experience, she said.

“Seeing him so close – and for my mom, it was her first time seeing the pope – was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Her daughters also shared what it was like seeing him and then hearing the sad news that he passed away. Camila said it was “so cool getting to see him with my grandmother, aunts, and cousins. And I knew it was probably going to be the last time I’d get to see him because he’d been pretty sick.”

When asked how she felt when it was announced that he had died, Camila responded, “I was shocked but thankful that we were among the last people to see him in public.”

Xochitl said she was very young the first time she saw Pope Francis, so this time it was more memorable for her. “I really enjoyed it and was engaged with the whole Mass and the whole process.”

Xochitl said she found out the pope had passed away from her aunt. She said they were going about their day when “my aunt said, ‘They just announced he died.’ Everybody was shocked. We didn’t know how to process it. We just saw him.”

Muñoz said, “It was such a bittersweet blessing. To be at Easter Mass in Rome is one of the highest blessings. Going to Mass at any church is a gift, but to be able to be at the Vatican at Easter Mass and have the pope show up was amazing – a tremendous blessing.”

Muñoz said Easter Monday is a special holiday in Rome and most of the businesses are closed as they celebrate the Risen Christ and the beginning of Easter week. “It’s sad but also a blessing that he passed on a very special day after Jesus rose from the dead. And it was such a blessing to have him come to Easter Mass and get his last blessing and an indulgence from him.”

She said it was a little cold that morning and they didn’t have tickets in advance, so they got there at 7 a.m. for the 10 a.m. Mass. They were going to wait in line to see if they could get tickets when a religious sister from the Congo had seven extra tickets and gave them to Muñoz’s group. “So, we got to sit on chairs, and we were up front.”

Muñoz said they didn’t think Pope Francics was going to come out because of the chill in the air, and they thought about leaving. Then, they heard that he would appear on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. “He looked tired,” Muñoz said. “You could tell, even when he was giving his blessing, that he was struggling a little; it was slow. I wonder if he knew that it was going to be his last day, and he wanted to be near the people.”

The canonization of Carlo Acutis they originally planned the trip around has been postponed, and Muñoz admitted the girls mentioned being a little disappointed at first, but now, she told them, they’ll be there to attend the funeral of Pope Francis. On Wednesday, April 23, the group traveled to Assisi to visit the tomb of Blessed Carlo, and on Thursday, April 24, they visited St. Peter’s to view the body of Pope Francis.

For the funeral on Saturday, April 26, they got on the bus at 5 a.m. She told Today’s Catholic that she met a young woman from Ohio in line who said she was there celebrating the one-year anniversary of her re-conversion to the Catholic faith. They were about halfway from the altar in the crowd so they couldn’t see any of the heads of state and had a hard time seeing what was happening some of the time. However, Muñoz said she once again was thankful and amazed by so many different cultures praying in one universal language.    

She said the experience was very emotional for her mother, Carmen. “She was just thankful to see Rome and the pope – and now, being a part of this, was more than she imagined,” Muñoz said, adding that the funeral Mass was beautiful, as was the Litany of the Saints prayed at the end of Mass.

“It was all very surreal and a mixture of emotions,” Muñoz said. “We were expecting to be here for something joyful with the canonization, and seeing him at Easter looking very tired and then learning of his death and being here for this once-in-a-lifetime moment – it’s just been very emotional,” she shared.

Muñoz said she was so thankful her husband encouraged them to go and “to see this experience and have a better relationship with my girls and to grow closer to God.”

“This is a blessing. God gave us this gift,” she said. “This was not really in our plan; it was just meant to be.”