Well, the mourning period for Pope John Paul II ended today, and on Monday the process of picking the next Roman Catholic leader begins.

The (weak) picture here is from the public audience with the Pope I attended back in July 1979. No private audience – I don’t have that kind of pull – but I was seated a couple of rows ahead of Merv Griffin, so I had some inside connections.

This was less than a year after his election to the papacy (October 1978), and before the 1981 assassination attempt that seems to have begun the decline of his health.

I’m a fallen-away Catholic – and I was at the time, as well – but it was still a great experience. The helicopter comes in, the pope-mobile rolls in, and then there is an address the Pope gave in several languages. To a packed house in the middle of the colonnade in St. Peter’s Square.