What the students and I talked about was that this meant they were all just so many handshakes away from Jesus. The thrill for me was seeing the sheer joy that the students felt. That was more important to me than touching the pope myself. They really, really got excited.

For the benefit of international business students on the trip, a representative of Ericsson gave a presentation on the cell phone industry in Italy.

The pope acknowledged our cheer with a wave of his hand.