HOUSTON – A Houston-area woman traveling to Rome for found herself swept up in history this week, just hours after arriving in the Eternal City.
Liv Harrison, of Tomball, had landed in Rome for the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year celebrations when she joined tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square to witness the announcement of a new pope.
“I’m jet lagged, I just got off a plane,” Harrison said. “So, this was not on my bingo card of things that I thought was going to happen on the day that I landed in Rome.”
Cardinals elected Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago as the 267th pope. He took the name Pope Leo XIV, becoming the first American to hold the papacy in the history of the Catholic Church.
“You could just kind of see everyone’s face light up,” Harrison said. “Then it registered: that means we have a Pope. My body just started shaking. I was just ecstatic.”
Harrison traveled to Rome with a group of friends, many of whom have participated in faith-based pilgrimages together in the past.
“There’s so many things that happen in the world that are scary and sad that involve the whole world: earthquakes, tornadoes, wars,” she said. “We come together, but it’s not a joyous occasion. This was. This was joy.”
Despite travel delays in Newark, Harrison made it to Rome in time for the pivotal moment. She described the scene in the square as electric, emotional, and deeply spiritual.
“This was a tangible experience of my faith,” she said. “I could experience it with other people, and I thought, ‘Wow, I guess I really do believe this stuff.’ That’s good. It’s good to have those touch moments.”
“I’ve been to the World Series with the Astros. I’ve been to the Olympics. But this—this was something else,” she said.
As Pope Leo XIV begins his papacy, Harrison said she’s returning home with a renewed sense of faith and gratitude for what she calls “a front-row seat to a sacred moment.”
