This is Behind the Scenes, Part I

Something tells me that you all know about the death of John Paul II and the events which followed-- the media is rather good at imparting basic facts. You've seen the world reaction, the crowds of people standing in line to see the Pope, perhaps even the funeral Mass. Now that you are completely numb to any more pictures and articles about these events, I thought that the present moment would be the perfect time for me to publish....

(And I apologize to those people with a dial-up connection. Go get a tea or some cookies, and come back in half an hour when everything is downloaded)

The story begins before I even departed from Medjugorje....

I had been doing a lot in Italy over the past two months. I had seen the major tourist sites in Rome, went to Mass at the Vatican, enjoyed a few basilicas and found many hidden churches. I did a little studying, a little class-attending, and I even got to go to Assisi: