Jon Lane's summer vacation

Waving at the Pope with 60,000 friends

MOSES LAKE — Jon Lane just got back from doing as the Romans do.

The Moses Lake city councilman and principal of St. Rose of Lima Catholic School in Ephrata recently returned from two weeks in Italy with his wife Carol and a group of their friends.

The trip had been in the works, but the Lanes' trip was paid for as part of the recent CBS television series, "Hero's Welcome," which honored Lane for his heroic acts during the Frontier Middle School shooting in 1996.

"That's one of my dream trips," Lane said of Italy. "Of course, being a lifetime Catholic, I always wanted to go to Rome. The last few years, we've been able to take some overseas trips, and I was so impressed with the churches, the art and the architecture, it was just one more country that was on my list. I have some others still on my list I want to go to, but it was sure right at the top."

While in Italy, the Lanes and their circle of friends visited Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Sienna, Pisa, Lucca and Venice, where he and Carol celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary with a gondola ride.

Lane said the part of the trip that most resonated with him followed a visit to the Coliseum, with a tour guide who was able to put the things they saw in the context of their impact upon society. As they walked from the Coliseum site over a cobblestone path and sat beside some ruins, the tour guide pointed out a laurel tree, which the conquering Romans would wear as their wreaths as they drove their chariots over that very path.

"I thought, 'We're here, it really happened,'" Lane remembered, a note of awe in his voice as he considers the fact that he walked where part of history took place, including the assassination of Julius Caesar. "To see what's happened with some of the ruins and how they've dug them up, reclaiming some of their history, some of their knowledge about what happened — it's pretty cool, pretty powerful."

Lane and company were supposed to get a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI, but things didn't exactly turn out as planned.

"We got into Rome and wandered around a little bit, and noticed that there was just a lot of young people, with kind of bandannas on," Lane recalled. The group later learned there would be no private meeting with the Pope, due to a large youth conference gathering in St. Peter's Square.

"So me and 60,000 of my closest friends got to see the Pope," Lane said with a smile. "I waved at him, and I'm not sure he waved back, but he was pretty friendly."

The Pope's speech was in Italian or German, Lane said, so he did not understand it, but it was well received.

"It's pretty special — here's a man who is the successor to Christ on earth," Lane said of seeing the Pope. "As I understand it, there are supposed to be a billion Catholics in the world and just to think about the responsibility that this man has."

Asked if he will use anything from the trip in his duties as principal, Lane noted that people are all the product of their experiences. He keeps thinking about the naivete of the United States and its young history, and the history of the people who have dedicated their lives and fortunes to the church, he said.

"In building things now, we're always reluctant to do the extras because of the criticism that we might have," he reflected. "Back then, the popes, the kings and the leaders, they spent hundreds or millions of dollars or whatever on doing certain things, and they were for the glory of God. We just don't think about that in these times. I guess I think about the majesty and magnificence of everything … That's all wonderful, but really, being a Christian I think is about, how can you be a better person?"

Lane considers the trip very special, and said he was with a great group of friends. But it also made him look forward to reaching another place.

"I've always thought, when you go on a trip, wherever it is, especially overseas, it makes you understand and appreciate other cultures and other places," he said, "It also makes you appreciate home, and home's a pretty good place."