If he’d known he was going to meet the pope, he would have gotten a haircut. That’s what Father Noé Ramirez said when describing the day in November of 2022 when he unexpectedly found himself in the Vatican.
A priest of the Diocese of Raleigh, Father is studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and working toward a licentiate, or Catholic Church degree, in psychology. And that day in November he had a visitor, Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama, who had reached out to Father Noé because he needed help getting to a meeting.
“I picked him up in the morning, and he said, ‘Make sure you bring a jacket,’ and I said, ‘OK,’” Father Noé recounted May 2 to NC Catholics. “And so I walked with him. I dropped him off with the Swiss Guard and I said, ‘I’ll be back in an hour? Or two hours?’ And he said, ‘You’re coming with me,’ and I said, ‘OK’ and so this very tall guard escorted us up to a room.”
Father remembered passing through grand halls, which he called beautiful and each as magnificent as the Sistine Chapel.
“I thought, ‘My goodness. What is this? It’s amazing,’” he continued. “And then we were just sitting there, and I was like, ‘Who is your meeting with?’ And he said, ‘I have a meeting with the pope.’ And I was like ‘What? Why didn’t you tell me?’”
Father Noé said Bishop Luis told him he didn’t want him to worry.
“And I said, ‘I’m not worried, but I would have gotten a haircut,’” laughed Father Noé as he re-told the story.
They waited and, soon enough, were in the presence of Pope Francis. Father Noé expected him to be on the other side of the room, sitting down. But, to his surprise, he was right at his side and offered his hand and a warm greeting.
“He just gave me this amazing attention, this beautiful look of ‘I’m here with you. Tell me who you are.’ I will never forget it,” he said.
Father Noé stepped outside and waited about an hour for Bishop Luis to have his meeting. Afterward, they went for coffee. They walked in silence, thinking about their encounter and words with Pope Francis.
“If you ask the guys who saw me when I got back from that, I was just like lost. I was struck with what had just happened,” Father Noé said.
It would be two and a half years later that he would wake up Easter Monday morning and sit in the courtyard near his university and hear the news of the death of Pope Francis.
He looked down at his phone, which had delivered a notification from the Liturgy Office with the news and time of death, which was about two hours before.
“It shocked me because sometimes I take a bike ride in the mornings, and I had passed St. Peter’s Basilica just that morning at that time Pope Francis died,” Father Noé said. “I was like, ‘I was just there.’ I took a moment of silence, said an Our Father, a Haily Mary and a Glory Be for his soul.”
Father Noé attended the funeral April 26. He wore his Diocese of Raleigh jacket.
“I want to let the people know they were all there with me, praying for Pope Francis,” he said. “[At the end] there was this echo of joy in the silence in the square. I don’t know if that makes sense. But … that’s when we said, as a whole Church, ‘Rest in peace, Pope Francis.’ And then after a couple of minutes, it just erupted and then afterward people continued on.”
Video
Watch and listen as Father Noé recounts meeting Pope Francis in 2022, attending his funeral in 2025 and the impact Pope Francis had on his life and ministry.
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