LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) — The images were difficult for students and staff at Holy Innocents School to absorb: a statue of the Virgin Mary smashed, sacred items torn apart, and parts of the campus left in disarray.
It was all due to an act of vandalism a few weeks ago.
“The feeling of everyone just wondering, ‘Why? What would motivate you to do this?'” said Kiernan Fiore, a teacher at the school.
School officials said they may never learn who desecrated the campus, but in the aftermath of the destruction, something unexpected — and to many, something divine — followed.
The vandalism occurred just as students were preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to the Vatican.
In the days after the attack, a friend of the school helped arrange an extraordinary opportunity: the possibility of an audience with Pope Leo.
“When we first walked into the room, I had heard a little bit that … maybe you guys will get to meet the Pope and I was like, ‘No, I don’t think so. There’s so many people here,'” said student Sophia Gutierrez.
Instead, the students received a personal welcome from the Pope himself.
“He really tried to talk to us,” said student Carlos Martinez. “He asked us how we were, he asked us where we’re from … He felt like a human being — easy to talk to, very humble.”
For Gutierrez, the moment became deeply personal.
“He stopped right in front of me, and I was like, ‘Pope Leo, can you bless my rosaries?'” she said. “He came back, and he touched my rosary, and he said, ‘Everything is already blessed.'”
After the trauma from the attack on the school, Fiore said the encounter brought a sense of healing and hope to the community.
She believes something good came from the incident, as the encounter led to them “knowing for some small amount of time how special they are in the eyes of God.”
The students returned to school on Tuesday, still battling jet lag and still overwhelmed by the experience.
They said it’s a moment they will remember for the rest of their lives.
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