Pope Pays Virtual Visit To Pilsen High School
(CBS) -- Three weeks before the Pope comes to America, he was in Chicago – sort of.
Monday was a day at Christo Rey Jesuit High School students will never forget: the day Pope Francis came to Pilsen, in a virtual visit.
"I couldn't believe it. At first, I thought it was a joke, they were pranking us or something," senior Michael Frutos tells CBS 2's Derrick Blakley.
The pope doesn't prank.
Through a video conference from the Vatican, arranged by ABC News, the pope took questions from students at Christo Rey and two other U.S. locations.
"To think that for an hour or so this morning he was present almost literally present with our students in our chapel seemed like something unreachable," principal Patricia Garrity says.
About 145 students and 25 staff members attended. The pope's Spanish was translated to English.
"He spoke a lot, connecting with us spiritually, and kind of giving us our own advice," junior Aylin Guzman says.
"He told us God is always with us, and how even at the hardest moment, God will never give up on us," junior Freddy Sandoval says.
The students say they felt the pope's personal touch -- and his genuine concern.
Two Christo Rey students got to ask the pope a question.
