Once, when after a long hike we reached the clearing, we – people from the Papal protection – sat as usual at a short distance, about fifty meters from the Holy Father and his loved ones. I remember that early that morning our colleague from the gendarmerie Egildo Biocca bought provisions for us in one of the towns in the valley: some fresh bread and mortadella. We laid it all on the paper spread out between us, sat on a blanket on the grass at the foot of the sharp peaks and began to eat. When we unwound the mortadella from the paper, its amazing smell spread all around and I think it reached the Pope himself. We saw that he was sitting next to Father Stanisław and Father Tadeusz Steczek, and suddenly he got up on his feet. We looked at each other and thought that we need to roll up the food – maybe the Holy Father wants to go back on the road and we should hurry. Meanwhile, the Pope briskly approached us. Without a word, he began to circle around the blanket on which we were sitting – he was wearing his big, high mountain boots – he watched, and finally shyly with half-words he began to ask: “And, what are you eating there today?” “Mortadella, Holy Father…” Oh, good mortadella…” he murmured under his breath. After a while, he took a big step between us, with one foot he stood in the middle of our circle, bent down, took two slices of cold meat with his fingers, looked at us and said: “And this, I will take it” – and with a wide smile he began to eat. We could still hear him saying, moving away, “Mmm, this mortadella is delicious…” and, then he returned to his fellow hike companions.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
pages: 171 – 172
