Sometimes God’s providence and blessings are so obvious that they practically come with a spotlight.
That’s a little where the students and staff at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach find themselves, having spent the first few days of February dealing with the ramifications of a heartbreaking desecration of their school hall and chapel, and less than two weeks later shaking hands with none other than Pope Leo XIV.
Holy Innocent’s nine-person senior class, four teachers, religious leaders, and family were in Rome on Feb. 11 when they got an unexpected audience with Leo, who gave them his blessing — and prayers — following the vandalism of their school, which included a shattered life-size Virgin Mary statue that had been guarding the campus since its opening in 1958, and a ruptured bronze tabernacle that had been thrown to the ground.
So how did Holy Innocents go from pain to the pope?
“Only God can write this story,” said Holy Innocents School Principal Cyril Cruz.
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Holy Innocents already knows a little something about popes and timing. During last year’s annual pilgrimage to Rome for their senior class, students celebrated Easter Sunday with Pope Francis’ “Urbi et Orbi” blessing — and to experience his death and funeral Mass days later.
This year’s senior class was also at its retreat at Camp Lolek — a Catholic center in Wrightwood named after St. Pope John Paul II’s nickname — when they saw white smoke on TV, signaling the election of Pope Leo XIV.
The students from Holy Innocents School weren’t even supposed to be in Rome in February. The school’s annual pilgrimage for its senior class usually happens during Holy Week.
But Father Robert McGowan, associate pastor at Holy Innocents Church, was leading the group this year, and he obviously couldn’t be away during the busy weeks of Easter, so school officials moved the trip to February.
The timing would prove to be heaven-sent.
With a senior trip pre-planned, Cruz walked into the school hall at Holy Innocents on the Monday morning of Feb. 2 and came across a scene that left her shaken. Vandals had broken in and left behind unspeakable damage that school officials couldn’t understand who might do such a thing.
Chairs were toppled, food strewn about, and the contents of empty soda cans littered the floor.
Elsewhere, wires were ripped out of the wall, lighting and audio equipment busted, and musical instruments were damaged and left scattered.
But the most jarring part of the break-in was the desecration done to holy objects. The original Virgin Mary statue was broken, lying on the floor near the altar. Another Mary statue had its hands cut off. Catholic missals and hymnal books spilled to the floor. The bronze tabernacle had been thrown to the floor, apparently in an attempt to open it. While ruptured, the box held the holy Eucharist inside, relatively unharmed.
After witnessing the horror, school officials only allowed one group of students to view the damage: the senior class.
“When I did see the destruction, then my eyes got really watery, and I just felt so sad,” said Sophia Gutierrez, 17, one of Holy Innocent’s seniors. “Because, like, why? Why would they do that to our faith? Why would they do that to Our Lord?
“All of us were really in shock. I think especially since we were the senior class. We never really expected this to happen at all.”
The next morning, after intensive cleanup by staff, students, and volunteers, Auxiliary Bishop Marc Trudeau celebrated a reparation Mass in the hall, sprinkling the space with holy water and calling for healing after “people who are broken tend to break things,” he said.
In the aftermath of the break-in, the local and larger community stepped up in a big way.
Some volunteered to help clean up. Others volunteered to donate items or services. Donations poured in, more than $150,000 from a GoFundMe account and about $75,000 donated directly to the school.
“What happened with the vandalism was pretty horrible,” said Carlos Martinez, 17, one of Holy Innocents’ seniors. “But since we believe that God uses bad for good, I don’t think it was a coincidence that happened right before we went to Rome.
“Like we met the pope and there were so many people supporting our school, even people not from our school. And it was really beautiful.”
Of all the grand gestures, a smaller offer had a bigger impact.
A benefactor who wanted to remain anonymous got the school in touch with Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo, a priest who worked in Rome but is now based in Assisi, Italy, and travels the world with the relics of newly canonized St. Carlo Acutis.
Figueiredo was able to arrange for the group to receive an audience with Leo and to have their school be named during the ceremony.
The only issue: the tickets had to be picked up on the evening the group’s flight landed in Rome. That seemed easy enough until several things began impeding their progress, like an issue with their bus that caused them to leave hours after they planned. When they arrived to pick up the tickets, Kiernan Fiore, the director of academics at Holy Innocents who was helping to chaperone the trip, sprinted to the office.
They just made it.
The next day, still bleary-eyed and jet-lagged from the flight, there they were inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, still unsure what to expect.
Martinez’s family received the first surprise while Leo was entering the hall.
“He was walking down the middle aisle, and my mom wanted to get my little baby brother, who came with us, to go get blessed by Pope Leo,” Martinez said. “I tried to go, but there were people in front of us, so we couldn’t get all the way to the front. So I was able to ask the guy in front of us to carry my brother out.”
It worked.
Once Leo’s audience remarks were over, the group figured they’d stand way in the back and would get a photo with the pope that way.
Instead, they were invited onto the steps and Leo greeted each person individually, shaking hands and offering prayers for the desecration of their school.
“I was actually the first one he came up to when we were going to take a picture, and he shook my hand, and I just, I was like, this is so crazy. How am I meeting the pope?” Gutierrez said. “Just being able to tell him that this happened, and him saying that you’re going to be in my prayers, it was really moving.”
“I think when you are in the presence of the Holy Father, you can really feel the depth of his prayer life, and the way that comes out in his generosity to other people, his warmth, the way he seeks to be truly a pastor,” Fiore said. “But for me, personally, the thing that I really remember him commenting to me was just about the tabernacle at our school. It’s so meaningful for us to know that he has heard that, and can personally pray for us.”
Following the audience, the group visited other holy sites around Italy before returning home just before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. But the students and staff at Holy Innocents are still buzzing from the meeting with Leo and what it means as the school continues its healing and recovery.
“Just being able to meet him, it really just made it feel so real,” Gutierrez said. “Like he actually is a pope, it’s not just like who you see on TV. It’s not like on the news. He’s actually somebody who cares for our faith and who really wants to lead his flock.”
“It is so tempting when something like this happens to say why me?” Fiore said. “We all have suffering in our lives, and I think it’s when we’re open to Our Lord bringing us consolation, he always does.
“I don’t really believe in coincidences. I think we can see the Holy Spirit everywhere. But there where you can feel singled out for suffering, when you look to Our Lord, you’ll find you singled out for grace as well.”
Maybe what was shared on Holy Innocent’s social media channels said it best.
“Standing before the Holy Father, receiving his blessing, was not just a photo opportunity — it was a moment of healing for our students and our school community,” the post said.
“In a week that began with desecration, it ended with grace.”
