MANILA, Philippines–With her baby luckily touched by Pope Francis, Jaysiebel Isidro got strict instructions from her mother: Preserve what the Pontiff had touched.
The orders came once the family got home from what she described as a miraculous encounter with the Pontiff at the foot of Nagtahan Bridge on Sunday, where her baby Kobe, aged 1 year and 6 months, received the unexpected papal blessing.
“My mother told me not to wash the jacket my baby was wearing [when he was touched by the Pope],” said Isidro, whose baby caught the Pope’s attention as his convoy slowly made its way through the bridge after his visit to the University of Santo Tomas.
Keeping hair, too
“And she said we should also keep his hair the next time he gets a haircut, because that was also touched by the Pope,” she told the Inquirer when reached by phone on Tuesday.
Isidro considers the papal blessing of her baby a souvenir of a lifetime from Pope Francis’ visit, which she and her family closely followed through stakeouts on roadsides along the Pope’s known routes.
She did not get to photograph the moment. Security men had pushed away her camera phone on a monopod just before the Pope passed by. But the memory of the unexpected moment—along with her son’s blessed clothing—was enough remembrance from the Pope.
Elderly women crying
“When we returned to the center island [of the bridge after the Pope passed by], some elderly women around us were crying, touching my baby, because they felt that the Pope’s blessing would rub off on them,” Isidro said.
She was also moved to tears as she also got to touch the Pontiff’s hand.
“I really consider my baby a blessing, because my husband and I were on the verge of separating, until he [Kobe] came along. And I really thought I’d have a hard time having a baby because I have a polycystic [ovary syndrome]. We will bring this blessing with us for the rest of our lives,” she said.
Scarves, shawl
Some of the faithful, who spent hours of waiting along the papal route and at venues of his public events, are keeping souvenirs from the Pontiff’s four-day Philippine visit, from scarves and handkerchiefs to clothing and other items they were wearing when the Pope passed them by.
Attaching sentiment to the “blessed” souvenirs comes amid a seeming hangover from the euphoria that swept across the country throughout the papal visit.
This has prompted the clergy to urge a reflection on Pope Francis’ messages of caring for children and the poor, and protecting the family.
Lovely Flores, among the estimated 6 million who turned up for the Pope’s culminating Mass at Rizal Park in Manila on Sunday, said she would keep the scarf she brought to the event as a memento.
“The shawl I was wearing, it was blessed by the rains during the Mass. I will not use it again and I will just keep it,” said Flores, who came with eight of her friends to Rizal Park.
Her friend Sammie Mallari is keeping the rubber shoes she wore during the Mass as a blessed remembrance. She had been concerned that the long walk and wait would aggravate her limp, as she recently suffered a foot injury.
“Her feet were soaked in the rain. But she did not feel any pain, so she feels she was blessed,” Flores said.
Explanation
Sociologist Clifford Sorita said this manner of remembrance could be traced to the Filipinos’ inclination of keeping souvenirs from memorable events, coupled with their deeply entrenched faith.
“We feel like any item that we were carrying during the time the Pope passed us by is already blessed, and that it is sacrilegious to disrespect them,” Sorita said.
“As a Catholic country, we feel that everything that was blessed is sacred, and so we treat them not just as souvenirs, but we treat them with reverence,” he said.
Sorita said Filipinos had long believed in the preservation of the integrity of sacred items, keeping them untouched as much as possible.
“We want to preserve that sacredness and we believe that once that is washed, its blessedness would also be washed away. So, we want to keep them pristine,” he said.
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