The Pope ‘told us to go to the pub with our friends’

“We have one hour – ask the Pope whatever you want.”

Those were words that County Armagh woman Shannon Campbell did not expect to hear in an audience with Pope Francis.

But that is how he began a meeting with a group from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in 2022.

They had travelled to the Vatican to mark the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Chaplaincy and were invited to meet him in his private library.

Shannon, 27, who is the director of campus ministry at the chaplaincy, described how an unknown cardinal had tried to soothe the group’s nerves as they waited by telling them that it would be “like meeting your grandfather”.

They were surprised when the door to the room was opened by the Pope himself, who was beaming and smiling – but further surprises were to come.

“There was a seat out for each of us and on the seat was a copy of the speech that he was going to give. When he got to his seat, he picked up the speech and said ‘you can read this in your own time, we have one hour, ask the Pope whatever you want’.”

So – what did they ask the pontiff and leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics?

“Students were asking him about his time at university and how to live the faith as a young Catholic. He was talking about his university days in Argentina. He was super relaxed and made us all feel relaxed,” said Shannon.

“He really encouraged us to live our faith in a joyful, life-giving way and to be authentic. He told us to go to the pub with your friends, do what young people do but always have the message of the gospel in your back pocket.”

Michael Loughran is a fourth year engineering student at Queen’s – he described meeting Pope Francis as an inspiration.

“Whenever he spoke there was always a calmness he would bring and you would be reassured that your church would be in the right place when he was there,” he said.

The 22-year-old added that he felt the Pope was willing to hear both sides of things.

“He does go right into conversations whereas popes in the past would have been more on eggshells with certain topics. He did address things that are social issues – especially for young people.”

Shannon said she thought this Pope’s time at the head of the church would be remembered as a “very joyful papacy that was very much at one with the people”.

And as for those calming words from the cardinal – was he right?

“What that cardinal said was true – it was like walking in to meet with your grandparent,” she said.

“Part of our choir was actually part of the group too and usually he finishes a private audience by giving us a blessing and this time he asked us to sing the blessing. So we sang him an Irish blessing to end our meeting.”