Jim Tuxbury and Pat McGonigle in Italy (Courtesy: Facebook)
Pat McGonigle
By Pat McGonigle
NewsChannel 5's Pat McGonigle and Photojournalist Jim Tuxbury traveled to Rome, Italy to witness St. Louis native Archbishop Timothy Dolan's elevation to Cardinal.
PICS: Pat McGonigle's trip to Rome
Cardinal Dolan's return to St. Louis
The Archbishop of St. Louis has Ballwin native Cardinal Timothy Dolan to come home.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan will be in St. Louis May 5th for his niece's first communion.
NewsChannel 5 has learned the following day he is planning to hold an event.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum
Actually nothing funny happened on the way to the Roman Forum, but some interesting things happened once we arrived at the Forum.
Having covered Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a Ballwin native, at the Vatican all week, we decided to spice up the background for our Sunday reports from The Eternal City.
Having never been to Rome before, I've had a week filled with adrenaline-inducing once-in-a-lifetime experiences and sights.
Being a few feet away from Pope Benedict, the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, on two consecutive days was amazing.
Just being at St. Peter's Basilica on consecutive days was unbelievable.
So I was afraid I might be "all awed out" by the time we reached the Forum, the Coliseum and the rest of the famous Roman ruins.
I didn't need to worry.
When your eye first catches a glimpse of the Coliseum, it's so breathtaking, you almost think it's fake. Sure, it looks just like it does in the movies and in books; BUT...IT'S ....RIGHT ...THERE. A nearly 2,000 year old stadium that's considered one of the crowning achievements of the Roman Empire. The one-time cultural, political and theatrical center of the world.
A towering structure that's amazed crowds dating back to the time Julius Caesar!
And of course; one of the first things I thought of: Russell Crowe kicking Joaquin Phoenix's behind here in "The Gladiator".
Of course, I'm far from the only simple-minded American thinking of pop culture and movie references here (the Mel Brooks comedy "History of the World Part I" also kept coming to mind).
A lot of characters are roaming around the Forum and the Coliseum looking to make a fast buck on starry-eyed tourists. We saw several guys walking around in plastic, gold bronze Trojan warrior costumes.
You've seen these guys right?
Your first thought is: "Oh cool! Get a wacky picture of me with Titus over here!" Then, your wife or friend takes what you assume will be the Facebook profile pic to beat all of your friends---- and then the guy asks you for ten bucks.
"Come on! This is my job, MAN!"
So I passed on the gag pic with Emperor Dufus.
(quick side note: at the Statue of Liberty a few years ago, I witnessed a big guy dressed as Lady Liberty---green paint on his face, flowing gown, the whole thing--- and he threatened to knock a guy out for posing with him and not paying)
Back to Forum:
Recording what we call "stand ups" for TV news stories in front of the Roman ruins presented some challenges I should have seen coming.
Imagine trying to recite a short speech in a carnival atmosphere filled with international tourists, groups of teens, barking dogs and surprisingly loud street sweepers.
A couple times, teenagers jumped behind me while I was speaking and made crazy faces at the camera. It's sort of funny how the people who do this always assume you are broadcasting LIVE. I never get too angry at kids who do this because, in truth, I was probably that kind of teenager too.
Small crowds gathered around photojournalist Jim Tuxbury and I while we recorded these segments. People who didn't even speak English stood around watching, even snapping pictures at one point. Also, amazing to me. Don't get wrong, I believe our stories about St Louisans who traveled to Rome to see Timothy Dolan elevated to Cardinal at the Vatican are interesting, and important, but really?
As cliche as it sounds, when we got up close to the Coliseum, you can almost hear the roar of the bloodthirsty crowds from centuries ago.
Your mind races with images of Trojans in chariots, people being fed to the lions and, most importantly, Russell Crowe in Gladiator.
To be continued...
Rome, Italy, Sunday, Feb 19
People sing National Anthem at dinner for Dolan, for no particular reason
Ever since I was a kid, especially while watching the Olympics, I was always told hearing the National Anthem on foreign soil will bring you to tears.
I thought of the Olympic athletes, in some other country, winning the gold and watching the American flag hoisted to the highest point of the arena while the anthem played for the world.
Just the idea of it always got me a little emotional.
Today, at a dinner reception in Rome with friends and family for Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a group of Americans from St. Louis and New York spontaneously busted out the anthem.
It happened at a restaurant and banquet house called La Carovana.
To be completely honest; it was interesting and I felt a little something, but there were no Patriotic red, white and blue tears from me.
Not sure why they decided to do it, just thought I'd share a snippet of cell phone video of them singing.
Sunday, Rome, Italy, 12:30 pm
I don't mind telling you we've done our fair share of hustling here in Rome this week.
KSDK photojournalist Jim Tuxbury and I have been racing all over Rome since Thursday morning to cover Cardinal Timothy Dolan's comings and goings.
And Dolan is man who is hard to pin down.
Factor in that we're in a foreign land, with strange currency and a time zone seven times separated from St. Louis, and you can see why we've got some
so-called "situational hurdles" to surpass.
Here's another obstacle I haven't revealed until now.
Jim Tuxbury is racing around Rome on a really bad foot.
He doesn't how he did it, and he doesn't know what it is.
His best guess is that it's a stress fracture, triggered by some jogging.
He discovered it about two nights before we flew to Rome.
Keep in mind, Jim made extensive plans to travel abroad, which included getting excused from some advanced level math courses at Washington University.
So, clearly, this wasn't an assignment Jim could have turned down at the last minute by saying, "Hey, you know what? My foot REALLY hurts. Can someone else go to Rome?"
So, Jim gutted it out.
I wanted to post a quick video file so you could see what he's been up against the past few days in Rome.
Running around with 50 pounds of gear in a foreign land on a left-foot that hasn't stopped barking from the first flight overseas.
Here's to Jim, or, as I refer to him in this cellphone video; the Curt Schilling of foreign news photojournalists.
St Peters Basilica, Vatican City, Sun. Feb. 19
How Facebook saved me at The Vatican
Tonight on NewsChannel 5 at Five, you'll meet two young Seminarians from St Louis who are following in the footsteps of Cardinal Timothy Dolan. They are students at the Pontifical North American College in Rome and served mass at St Peter's Basilica today.
I had their names but I had no idea what they looked like. I prayed for luck and then remembered I had an iPhone with me at the church. With Facebook.
Would these devout young men have visible Facebook profiles with pictures?
More importantly, would I have any mutual friends with these future priests, allowing me to know them when I see them?
The answer to that and other burning questions, TONIGHT on NewsChannel 5 at Five!
Ciao from Rome!
North American College, Sat., Feb. 18 , Rome, Italy, 1:30 pm (7 hours ahead of St Louis time)
Sometimes, it really is better to be lucky than to be good.
Luck was on our side again today while covering Timothy Dolan's elevation to Cardinal at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Pope Benedict presided at the Consistory ceremony. Dolan, a native of Ballwin, Missouri, and 21 other men from around the world were elevated to the rank of Cardinal.
What's been called the most exclusive club in the world. The 125 spiritual advisers to the Pope and the group that will one day name his successor.
After the ceremony, the Vatican arranged for a "media availability" for Dolan at the nearby North American College, where young seminarians study. It's also where Dolan studied at one time. Dolan also once served as the rector there as well.
On this day, the college put some young, well-meaning seminarians in charge of putting the media in place for Cardinal Dolan's "media availability".
It was something of a disaster, but one that has a happy ending.
Imagine 45 journalists, photographers, writers and network TV types from all over the world battling for position around a chair in a hallway.
That was the plan for Cardinal Dolan's media availability. It was getting ugly---something like wrestling.
Suddenly, Cardinal Dolan's media coordinator from New York City walked into the hall, looked at the ugly scrum and said very clearly to everyone, "No way. This isn't happening here."
Sadly for us, things only got worse at this point.
Dolan's media guy motioned for everyone to follow him down the hall to some outside stairs.
Once again, imagine a rowdy herd of 45 journalists scrambling with video cameras, still cameras with giant lenses, tripods, cables---you name it! Everyone racing down the hall to the outside steps for the best spot to interview the new Cardinal.
It was not going so well...until, it happened!
During a line of questioning from Spanish and Italian reporters, Cardinal looked at my partner here in Rome, photojournalist Jim Tuxbury and said, "Hey, Jim!"
Quick back story:
Jim served as Dolan's altar boy at Cure of Ars in Shrewsbury when he was a kid.
When we first ran into Dolan two days ago, he truly remembered Jim and even the STREET his parents lived on.
So, fast forward back to today.
"Hey, Jim!" Cardinal Dolan shouted happily as confused international reporters looked on. "How are your parents? He's from St. Louis," Dolan explained to the crowd.
A message to the people of Ballwin?
"A message to the people of Ballwin? Yeah, go Cardinals! Look at this Cardinal's hat!", Dolan said after taking off his red biretta.
Feb. 17 St Peter's Square, Rome, Italy, 12:30 pm (7 hrs ahead)
Things were going so smoothly in Vatican City today I truly wondered if we were getting some Divine Intervention,
Until a cruel twist of fate.
Between getting cleared for Vatican media credentials and getting back to our hotel to feed back new stories from Rome, for the 4, 5, 6 p.m. newscasts, we had about 80 minutes.
Eighty minutes to find "newsworthy" stories in Rome centered around local people who made the pilgrimage here to witness Archbishop Timothy Dolan elevated to Cardinal.
Minutes after getting our media credentials, I heard this:
"Hey, Channel 5, alright!"
"We're Channel 5 from St. Louis, not New York, you understand," I say, because that's happened a couple of times.
"Yeah, we know you! We're from St. Louis too!" they said.
ALLELUJAH!
Turns out, this wonderful local trio had three distinct stories to tell that are connected to Timothy Dolan and St. Louis.
One, is a cousin named Timothy Dolan Noonan, with a background in architecture and intelligent things to say about St. Peter's Basilica.
His wife, Karen Noonan, a new Catholic, plans to receive her first Holy Communion from Dolan at St. Peter's Basilica on Friday.
Patty Noonan came armed with a take on the growing friendly rivalry in Rome between Dolan fans from St. Louis, New York and Milwaukee.
Thanking a higher power for our luck in finding three stories with just enough time to also make it to evening mass---we raced back to our hotel to feed back our stories.
An hour later, the entire landscape of our productive day had been turned upside down.
An unforseen development laid waste to our efforts and meant we would have to to go back to St. Peter's and start all over again. I can't reveal right now what this cruel twist was, but I will, a bit later.
In developments not related to work, I'm finding my three years of Spanish in high school are serving me well in Italy.
"Si" seems to go over well for "yes", "right on" and "I hear ya buddy". "Grazi" is always well received.
The pizza really is amazing here, no joke.
No, we haven't had time for the finer foods.
The tiny roads of Rome are choked with Vespas and tiny Smart Cars.
My puny Nissan Cube in St. Louis would look like a Chevy Suburban here.
The elevators and hotel rooms are frighteningly small.
I've yet to run into the infamous pickpockets with "fingers as light as feathers".
Only drove by the Coliseum and other famous ruins, pretty amazing, even from a packed tour bus.
St. Peters Basilica is breathtaking. Outside of that, we haven't had much time for culture.
Oh yeah, men are a lot more stylish here. Lots of scarves, 5 o'clock shadows and fancy leather shoes.
Basilica of St. Mary Major, Rome, Italy, Thursday, 5:50 pm (7 hrs ahead of StL time)
Archbishop, and Cardinal designate, Timothy Dolan led a mass Thursday afternoon at the world's oldest church named in honor of the Virgin Mary; Basilica of St. Mary Major.
A memorable event as we were able to spend some time with Dolan, his brother Pat, his sister Debbie and his first teachers at Holy Infant in Ballwin; Sister Rosario and Sister Bosco.
Getting an interview with Archbishop Dolan has been my top priority since arriving in Rome so it was quite the surprise when I happened into him near the rear of the famous church about 20 minutes before mass began. I had a "KSDK NewsChannel 5" microphone clipped to my belt and it seemed to catch his attention.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Dolan's sister-in-law, Mary T. Dolan works for KSDK and told him I'd be looking for an interview.
So Dolan see's the KSDK microphone and says to me, "Hello!!"
"Hello, Archbishop," I say.
"I'm really glad you came here, I'd like to talk later," he beamed.
And we did.
Hotel Cicerone, Rome, Italy, Thursday, Feb 16, 1:13 pm (Rome time, 7 hrs ahead of St. Louis)
It is a beautiful, sun-splashed afternoon in Rome, the Eternal City, and photojournalist Jim Tuxbury and I are praying to St. Isidore. According to Google, St. Isidore is the Patron Saint of the Internet. A lot of the video from our epic trip to the Vatican to witness Archbishop, and St. Louisan, Timothy Dolan elevated to Cardinal will depend on the reliability of the web (say a prayer to St. Isidore for us).
That said - we are here! And it's already been amazing. We've come across several other St. Louisans making this historic trip to see Archbishop Dolan become a Cardinal, a prince in the Catholic Church.
Alexandra Casten is a 22-year-old nursing student from St. Louis. We ran into her at Washington Dulles International Airport. She had been planning to meet her boyfriend, who is serving in the military, in Rome. Now, their romantic Rome rendezvous will also give them a reason to witness history at the Vatican. Casten, who is related to Archbishop Dolan, says she's been following his rise through the ranks of the church and is very excited about this trip.
"He's one of us," Casten says.
After hitting the ground in Rome this morning, we discovered a huge throng of other Americans making the trip because of Archbishop Dolan. Most of the people we encountered at customs and baggage claim are from the Archdiocese of New York. Their history with Dolan isn't as long as the people of St. Louis, but their love for him is just as strong.
Monsignor Robert Ritchie is the Rector at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City (Archbishop Dolan is the Pastor of St. Patrick's).
"He's so excited, he's been busting a few buttons on his shirt recently," Monsignor Ritchie joked at the airport Thursday morning.
Many of the New York City priests wore NY Yankees hats and immediately gave us the business about the St. Louis Cardinals. Amazing how in New York, even men of the cloth are prone to talking trash.
"Where's St. Louis?" one of them jokingly asked.
"Where the World Series trophy lives," photojournalist Jim Tuxbury fired back, in good fun.
Barbara Druhe grew up in Ballwin and has known Archbishop Dolan for years. She says she's thrilled to be in Rome to witness his elevation to Cardinal and expects she'll be back.
When asked if she thought he will someday be the first American pope, Druhe smiles: "We'll be back to Rome!"
Next up on the agenda, Archbishop Dolan will celebrate mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major at 4 p.m. Rome time.
Pat McGonigle filed the following blog about his journey to Italy Thursday at 1:05 p.m. Rome time.
Lambert International Airport, 6:32 am, Wednesday, February 15, 2012
"Can I see your passport?" the ticketing agent asks me at the United counter.
"Sure, it's brand new," I say with confidence.
"Did you sign it?" she asks.
"I'm sure I must have," I said, confidence fading.
"Glad I asked, you did not sign it. Are you aware the airline could be fined $2,500 if you got to Rome with an unsigned passport?" she asks me nicely.
Fast Forward One Hour
"Ahhh...folks," the pilot began on the intercom. "You may have noticed we are flying BACK to St. Louis right now. There's a small maintenance matter, not a big deal, we have to go back and get another plane. Not a big deal, but, ahhh, why don't you make sure those seatbelts are nice and tight."
Turned out it was a "pressurization" issue, 'no big deal' after all. But the "seatbelts nice and tight" comment still had me doing 12 consecutive Our Fathers.
Chesterfield, 5:20 am, Wednesday, February 15:
For the last few days, I've been promising viewers we would take them every step of the way in our trip to Rome to witness Archbishop, and native St. Louisan, Timothy Dolan elevated to Cardinal. And since all great journeys begin with the first step, I'm standing in my kitchen at home with photojournalist Joe Young while my wife and five daughters are asleep upstairs.
We file our first live report as I walk out of my kitchen and into the garage to go over a final checklist of my travel items. Through the magic of modern television technology, we are able to report live from my home without the benefit of a giant satellite truck or live microwave vehicle (I'll spare you the science behind that).
Without waking the neighbors, I check off ( and hold before a live camera) some of the items I'm taking with me to Rome:
--A family photo with my wife and 5 girls (I'm told the Pope might bless things like this). I also scrawled STL 12 on the back, a discreet way to get the Pontiff to bless the Cardinals winning a 12th World Series in 2012.
--Some of the Euros I picked up at the US Bank in downtown St. Louis
--Our equipment suitcase with microphones and power converter boxes
--Three books to read on the overnight flight from DC to Rome: "A Catholic's guide to Rome," "Jesus," written by Pope Benedict and "An Idiot's Guide to the Life of the Saints."
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