LOUISVILLE, Ky. — As Kentucky Catholics celebrated the first American pope, one area deacon is sharing a once-in-a-lifetime story. Deacon Patrick “Cole” McDowell was in Rome when Pope Leo XIV greeted crowds for the first time.
Inside the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, the spirit flows. This is McDowell’s home parish.
He started understanding the priesthood at St. Joseph’s when he was a kid. He’s soon to join the priesthood as an adult.
“I felt called to do this because I just think we need more and more and more people who are signs of God’s love in this world. This incarnational, in-flesh sign that God loves us and to live out that love in every aspect of our lives and I think priests, uniquely, are called to be that sign,” McDowell explained to Spectrum News.
Before he joins the priesthood, McDowell said he wanted to take a vacation and experience the papal process in person.
He booked the tickets and flew to Italy.
As he stepped off the train at the stop nearest St. Peter’s Square, people told him to start running to the square.
“People are running through the streets, there’s children crying ‘Habemus Papam!’ So, I had my bags in-hand and I realize ‘I have to go right now. I have to go right now or I’m going to miss it. So, I start running through the streets of Rome with my luggage in-hand,” said McDowell.
But despite running, he hit a 45-minute-long security line full of hundreds of people, “moving as slow as molasses” he said.
Deacon McDowell said, “There was a moment there, where I thought ‘They’re going to announce the new pope and I’m going to be this close, this close but I’m going to be stuck in this line.’”
The deacon managed to make his way through the crowd and found himself in the back with a good view.
According to McDowell, ten minutes later Pope Leo XIV walked out to greet the world.
McDowell said, “It’s a gift from God. This was in God’s hands this whole trip because I could not have planned it better.”
Deacon McDowell said, “Well, it felt like being in the center of the world because you’re there at St. Peter’s Square and there are people there speaking every kind of language from almost every corner of the Earth.”
He said he learned a great lesson from his trip. “To trust in God, let things go and that sometimes your will is not his will,” Deacon McDowell explained. “And you have to quiet down and listen to his voice and give yourself over to it.”
It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
“It’s something I’m going to carry with me for the rest of my life,” Deacon McDowell said. “I will never forget that day.”
McDowell will be ordained as a priest on May 31 and will serve as an associate pastor at St. James Elizabeth Church in Elizabethtown.