ROME
USCCB Blog
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
By Sister Mary Ann Walsh
Sat down to write my blog a few hours ago, looked up at CNN and saw white smoke.
With a cold rain drizzling down, I had said to people heading down to St. Peter’s Square for the smoke watch, if anything happens we’ll use the auditorium for a media holding pen – though we were all sure it wouldn’t happen.
Earlier in the day we had discussed how to accommodate media. Each network wanted a cardinal on its set. We worried we’d never be able to get cardinals through the crowd and decided it was better to broadcast from North American College. We sent out word to each network advising where they could park trucks. CBS decided in late afternoon to create a “set” in a basement classroom of NAC. While we awaited the pope’s appearance on the balcony, Charlie Rose joined us in the office before one of our TV sets.
Media arrived soon after the balcony appearance to wait for the cardinals. Finally someone got through to a friend at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where the cardinals stayed during the conclave. He found out they were having dinner. As the night wore on, media wondered if they should bail. Then someone else got through to say that they’d be back at NAC to meet with media at 11 p.m. We announced that, and media who were ready to pack up sat up straight.
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