A pair of Gibault alumni found themselves in Rome at the start of the year, and though they traveled for different reasons, both enjoyed a lucky encounter with the leader of the Catholic church.

As was recently shared on Gibault Catholic High School’s Facebook page, graduates Brennan Wills and Alexa Crowe both took a trip to Italy thanks to connections with their respective universities.

Crowe, a freshman at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., took her trip from Dec. 31 to Jan. 8, joining the Benedictine College Chamber Singers on one of their regular trips.

“I’m part of a couple choirs on campus, but the Chamber Singers Choir is the choir that went on this tour,” Crowe said. “We typically sing liturgical music. Every three years, the choir goes to Italy, and we tour at different basilicas and churches in Rome.”

Crowe remarked that she and her peers had been preparing for the trip through the entire fall semester, readying themselves for a number of performances such as those at the Basilica of St. Cecilia, the Abbey of Monte Cassino, the Palestrina Cathedral and more.

Crowe voiced particular excitement for the opportunity to sing Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.

“It was a really cool opportunity because I had never been out of the country before,” Crowe said. “I had always wanted to go to Italy, and it was definitely really cool to be able to sing at all of the really historic places there.”

Wills is a senior at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., and this year was actually his third spending New Year’s in Rome.

He traveled with members of the Marquette Campus Ministry and Milwaukee Knights of Columbus, saying this has become something of a tradition thanks to a professor at the university who has a great history in Rome as an archivist and historian.

Frequently visiting Rome himself over the years, the professor decided two years ago to bring some of the folks from the Jesuit college and Knights of Columbus to enjoy the ancient city from the end of the year to just before the start of spring classes.

“Between Dec. 29 to then is when he would take a group of 16 young men to Rome and basically show us around the city, help us do some service work by night, and that’s sort of how it happened,” Wills said.

Wills spoke about how much of his days on the trip were spent seeing the city’s architecture, from original Roman construction to what has been restored and remade in that image over the years.

Like Crowe, his trip was also spent seeing a number of basilicas.

At night, half of his group would spend time saying rosaries with older Jesuits in an infirmary connected to the St. Peter Canisius Residence where they were staying.

Others went to work in a soup kitchen with the Sisters of Charity, serving food to the poor in the city, an experience that left a strong impression on Wills as he recalled serving them with fruit straight from a lemon tree on the premises.

“I picked a lemon off of there, and I cut it up, and we served that as some of what we fed to the poor that day,” Wills said. “It felt very poetic to just pick a lemon tree from the Sisters of Charity, cut it up and give it to the poor.”

He further spoke about the many sights from his tours – noting the scale of the coliseum – and appreciating the fairly small language barrier he encountered with most folks.

A particularly major highlight for both Wills and Crowe was, of course, getting the chance to personally meet with Pope Leo XIV.

Crowe recalled how her opportunity came on New Year’s Eve as the Pope was conducting a Nativity blessing where he passed by her and her group, giving them the chance to wish him a Merry Christmas.

Wills spoke about how he and his group got their chance at a papal audience during their trip, threading the needle perfectly to wind up in the spot to greet Pope Leo.

“Great, great fortune of absolute luck fell down upon us because when we got in that line, if we had gotten there any earlier, we would have been put on the other side of the aisle where it was already being filled up and we wouldn’t have gotten even close to the center aisle,” Wills said. “We got in at exactly the right place at exactly the right time.”

Wills further noted how he and his peers managed to catch his attention with their Marquette and Knights of Columbus flags, even getting a “Go Marquette” from Pope Leo – a Chicago native.

Both Wills and Crowe looked back on their trips and respective encounters with the “American Pope” quite fondly, with Crowe noting how she hopes to enjoy another trip as she accompanies the choir again during her senior year.

“It was just a great opportunity to be able to be in it this year,” Crowe said.