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U.S. House chaplain, a fellow Jesuit, hopes for the rare honor of blessing
the pope - LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pope-visit-chaplain-20150924-story.html

U.S. House chaplain, a fellow Jesuit, hopes for the rare honor of blessing
the pope - LA Times

The Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, the chaplain of the U.S. House of
Representatives, has been thinking for some time about what he'll say when
he greets Pope Francis at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

"I've decided I'm going to ask him if I can bless him," Conroy said
recently. "What's he going to say?"

Kidding aside, Conroy said the gesture would fit Francis' humble style. He
noted that just after his election to the papacy, one of Francis' first
acts was to ask the crowd in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to pray for
him.

"And of course, it just takes a second, so nobody will get bent out of
shape," Conroy said.

When Francis arrives at the East Front of the Capitol on Thursday, the
history-making pontiff will be greeted by a history-making chaplain.

Conroy, the 60th chaplain in the history of the House, is only the second
Catholic to serve, and, like Francis, is the first in his role to come from
the Jesuit order. He took the office in 2011 after being nominated by House
Speaker John A. Boehner, who attended a Jesuit college, Xavier University
in Cincinnati.

Conroy hadn't set out to join the priesthood after he received his
bachelor's degree from then-Claremont Men's College, now Claremont McKenna
College. In fact, he did have a political goal: to be a senator from the
state of Washington. But he was called to the priesthood while attending
law school; he later earned his master's degree in divinity from the Jesuit
School of Theology of Santa Clara University.

Thursday marks yet another unexpected turn for Conroy: the chance to
welcome the first pope to address a joint meeting of Congress. Blessing
Pope Francis, should he get to do so, would follow another humbling
experience from this spring.

Conroy had twice served as a campus minister at Washington's Georgetown
University, including when Hunter Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden,
attended.

When Hunter's older brother, Beau, died this year, Conroy asked whether he
could attend the funeral. The Bidens welcomed him, and he was ultimately
assigned to offer Communion and blessings to attendees during the Mass. The
first mourners to come forward to his station: President Obama, First Lady
Michelle Obama, former President Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton and Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch.

"Now, it's an honor to meet these kinds of people. But to actually pray a
blessing — that's the coolest thing I've done," Conroy said. "The pope's
next."

*michael.memoli@latimes.com <michael.memoli@latimes.com>*

*Twitter: @mikememoli*
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Eric D. Schwerin
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com

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