I certainly am not going to defend Pope Francis against the many valid criticisms of him — for numerous reasons, not least of which is the fact that I'm not Catholic — but I did have an interesting experience involving him. The Pope was in Budapest on an official visit at the end of April 2023, and it just so happened that the road he used to cross back and forth between Pest and Buda was very close to the apartment where I was living at the time. So several times a day during the three days he was in the city, he would pass nearby in the Popemobile. We could always tell when he was coming because for a half-hour before he'd pass, the police would block off the road and set up a cordon on either side of it. During one of his passes, I happened to be on the curbside in an area where there were no other pedestrians and, as fate would have it, I was on the same side of the road that the Pope was facing. As his vehicle went past I could see him waving in the window, and for a brief moment he looked at me. I instantly felt a surge of positive energy through me, like a lightning bolt, that left me feeling pleasant and refreshed for the rest of the day. I wasn't sure what caused it, since it's highly questionable what divine benedictions this particular Pope was empowered to distribute, although one of my French Catholic friends pointed out that he was nevertheless endowed with great spiritual energy by virtue of the fact that he was the recipient of so many prayers and blessings from around the world. That seems to me to be the likeliest explanation. I nevertheless will always remember it as a particularly profound moment in my life, regardless of anything else I might think about his legacy.
