A huddle of the highest order
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis walked down a receiving line in St. Peter’s Square Wednesday, toward Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh and his wife, Sarah.
She was overwhelmed. She couldn’t breathe. She felt like she was looking at Jesus Christ, at least as close as you can get to it on Earth.
She started to back away, to rescind into the background and thought about looking at him from afar.
“There was a little bit of a gap,” she said, “and he looks at me.”
Pope Francis motioned for Sarah Harbaugh to come forward.
“I said, ‘ Papa Francis, I love you; you are beautiful,’ ” Sarah Harbaugh said. “He’s absolutely beautiful. His smile. His eyes. It’s just breathtaking.”
Pope Francis grabbed her hands and looked in her eyes.
“He said, ‘ Pray for me. Pray for me. Don’t forget,’ ” Sarah Harbaugh said. “He’s looking in my eyes — ‘Don’t forget.’ I was still holding his hands and I kissed his hands. ... I had to kiss him.”
She laughed, a momentary exhale that was full of disbelief, awe and amazement.
“I just felt overwhelmed,” she said. “His eyes were desperation, ‘ Please pray for me.’ I never thought about that, that he needed prayers, and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to pray for him every day.”
She saw pain in the Pope’s eyes. “He’s got the weight of the world, all of these different countries come to him for spiritual guidance,” Sarah Harbaugh said. “He feels all of that. He carries the pain, the fighting, the wars. You could just see the pain in his eyes.”
Jim Harbaugh noticed the same thing. “There is pain there,” Harbaugh said. “There is so much injustice in the world. Poverty and war. You can tell and feel that he feels that.”
The rest was a blur. Jim Harbaugh remembers shaking hands with the Pope.
“He said a prayer with us,” Sarah Harbaugh said. “I don’t remember exactly. But he held both of our hands and then Jim said, ‘Regalo! Regalo!’ ”
“Which is a gift in Spanish.”
The Harbaugh’s presented the Pope with a Michigan helmet and a pair of Nike shoes in a box. Jim Harbaugh smiled broadly, his arm around his wife.
The helmet had a special yellow sticker with the No. 266 — because this is the 266th pope.
The Nike shoes were retro Air Jordan 5’s, navy blue with maize accents, a collector’s item the Wolverines received at the Orange Bowl. On the Nike box, they had written: “Your Holiness.” They found out his shoe size from the friend of a friend of a friend of a friend, or something like that.
Maybe the Pope had no idea what to do with that helmet, and Sarah Harbaugh joked she wanted him to put on the shoes and the helmet, or at least, put them on and run around his apartment.
Or maybe, there is a giant room where the Pope puts all the stuff that people give him.
Jim Harbaugh doubts the Pope knows much about “American football.” But that doesn’t diminish what this moment was like for the Harbaughs.
“It was emotional; it was beautiful,” Jim Harbaugh said. “The Holy Father’s face is beautiful. His smile. The way he talks is peaceful. It’s calm. It felt like, this is what it would be like to meet Jesus Christ. That’s what it felt like to me. Very emotional.”
A short time after the meeting, someone approached the Harbaughs for a comment.
Jim Harbaugh, the gregarious football coach, the guy who seems to be on national TV every other day, couldn’t speak.
“I’ve never seen my husband at a loss for words,” Sarah Harbaugh said.
At the Vatican, Jim Harbaugh met with Monsignor Robert McClory, who is from Michigan. McClory is a 1991 graduate of Michigan’s law school and will soon be the pastor of National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica Catholic Church in Royal Oak. He is in Rome on vacation.
“What should I do?” Harbaugh asked McClory. “He said to pray. To be silent. To pray about it. Ask God what this moment of grace, what this opportunity is supposed to lead me to.” What does it all mean? Hours after the meeting, Jim Harbaugh didn’t know.
“I’ve been trying to figure it out, what the experience means, what I’m supposed to do with it,” Harbaugh said. “At least, he gave me the marching orders, to pray for him, I have that part down.”
Wolverines on Rome blitz
And so, this grand adventure continues.
The Wolverines have been in Rome since Sunday, on a trip that was paid for by an unidentified donor. It has been an exhausting, non-stop blitz through this amazing, fascinating city. From a famous garden. To the ancient ruins. To a game of paintball. To a beach. To the Vatican. To an orphanage to play soccer and give gifts.
While Harbaugh and his wife sat near the Pope during service Wednesday, the rest of the Wolverines sat on plastic chairs about 60 yards away.
“It was amazing,” said Joe Beneducci, a running back, who is Catholic. “Getting to see the head of my religion. It’s truly enlightening and spiritual. That man is [close] as someone can get to God. To be in his presence is very cool.”
Two Michigan players, Grant Newsome and Salim Makki, were expected to sit up front with Harbaugh but were unable because of a lack of seats. Were they disappointed? Sure. But not dejected.
“It was just a great experience,” Newsome said. “We were probably 40 feet from him. A lot of us were at a loss for words.”
After the service, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, who is Catholic, gave a quick history lesson to several players.
“They were asking if the Pope lived here,” Manuel said, pointing to a building. “I said, no. This is like the White House.”
There was so much media attention on Harbaugh that he gave a press conference Wednesday afternoon on a rooftop overlooking Vatican City, while most of the players toured the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.
Then, the team was scheduled to go to a culinary school Wednesday night to learn how to cook Italian food.
This trip never seems to end.
The entire experience has been exhausting and unrelenting — for the players, coaches and even the media following along — but there is no question it has been mind blowing.
“This has been the experience of my lifetime,” Harbaugh said. “It’s better than I could have hoped for. ... I’m riding on that cloud of grace. That was a gift, a gift from the Holy Father.”
‘A blessed man’
On Sunday, the Harbaugh’s infant son, John Paul, will be baptized and their 8-year-old daughter, Addie, will have her first communion at the Church of Saint Anne in the Vatican, a service performed by a monsignor.
“For me, this has been amazing,” Harbaugh said. “You know, the top three priorities in my life: faith, family and football — all together, it’s been amazing.”
So this? Well, this has been off the charts. This has been the best week of his life. Being back in the country where his grandfather grew up.
“To see my son, John Paul, be baptized at the Vatican, to see my daughter, Addie, receive her first holy communion at the Vatican, to meet the Holy Father,” Harbaugh said. “If I accomplish nothing more in my life, if I go right now, I’ll be going out a blessed man.”
As he spoke, he wore a Michigan baseball cap, still splattered with paint from Tuesday’s paintball competition.
He looked at that hat, which somebody found on the bus, and it means something to him now. Something profound. This whole trip has been.
Michigan’s trip to Rome this past week included a most memorable visit to the Vatican for Jim Harbaugh, his family and his players