The minute Pope Francis' Popemobile entered the campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila on January 18, it was if the world stood still.

All eyes were on the popular pontiff, every cellphone with a camera was aimed toward him, and people rushed to where he was in the hope of catching him wave, or even shake his hand.

He was, in a sense, treated like a rock star.

That he was well-loved was an understatement. He won the hearts of Filipinos long before he landed in Manila, and sealed that affection when he came here.



Such euphoria and affection were captured in “Pope Francis @ UST,” the coffee-table book published by UST, which was meant to document the papal visit dubbed as “Encounter with the Youth.”
 

The book was launched on Wednesday at the UST campus with Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Guiseppe Pinto, D.D., receiving a copy of the book from UST Rector Very Rev. Fr. Herminio V. Dagohoy, O.P. 
 

The 160-page book contains copies of the speeches of the Pope, both the one he gave and the one he was not able to deliver, after 12-year-old former streetchild Glyzelle Palomar asked the pontiff the heart-rending questions, “Bakit po pumapayag ang Diyos na may ganitong nangyayari? Kahit walang kasalanan ang mga bata? At bakit kaunti lang ang mga taong tumutulong sa amin?”

In response, Pope Francis hugged Palomar and another former streetchild, Jun Chura, who recounted his experience of living life in poverty. Then he chose to do away with his prepared speech and proceeded to speak from the heart in Spanish, saying Palomar's question pointed to “a worldly compassion, which is useless.”

A great bulk of the book was devoted to color photographs taken mostly by Thomasian photographers catching the Pope waving, smiling, kissing babies, meeting school officials, and hugging Palomar and Chura, among others. The photos also captured the people's reactions, smiling, shouting, crying, praying.

One spread was eyecatching in that it showed a sea of hands holding cellphones and tablets all aimed at one direction. It showed in one single photo how magnetic a personality the Pope has that today's digital generation could not help but catch that for posterity.

The book's consultant for editorial content, Prof. Emeritus Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, also the director of the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies, gave a reason why most of the pages of the book were devoted to photographs not text. “Where words fail, we paint pictures or take photographs. Thus, in this book, we allow the pictures to tell the story.”

A message of hope

Both Palomar and Chura, who were present during the book launching on Wednesday, summed up the significance of the papal visit—and the book's message.

“Hindi po ako nawawalan ng pag-asa,” Palomar told GMA News Online.

The grade 6 student whose favorite subjects are Hekasi and English had a message for other children: “'Yung mga batang nasa kalye, 'wag kayong mawalan ng pag-asa kasi nandiyan lang siya.”

Chura echoed Palomar's message and said, “Sa mga batang nasa kalye, 'wag mawalan ng pag-asa na baka sakaling may tumulong sa kanila para makapag-aral sila.” The former streetchild is now a grade 5 student and he wants to be an engineer someday, he revealed to GMA News Online.

Palomar, on the other hand, wants to be a psychologist “para magbigay ng hope,” she said.

One of the pages of the book has this quote from the Pope: “We need to care for our young people, not allowing them to be robbed of hope and condemned to life on the streets.”

And then there's this papal quote too, on another page: “There is much that remains to be done. Though the headlines have changed, the needs continue.”

UST printed only 1,000 copies of the book which will be given to people and organizations who helped organize the event. It was meant to be a souvenir of the historic event.

A previous report said UST is still studying the possibility of making the book available in bookstores. — RSJ, GMA News