The Rome fairground workers who won over Pope Francis by bringing acrobats to the Vatican

Ostia (Italy)It's an amusement park, one of those with bumper cars, trestles, and small arcades... In the past, it must have had its charm, but now it's clearly on the decline. It's called Luna Park and is located in Ostia, a coastal town in the province of Rome, just 30 kilometers from the Italian capital. There, in a caravan, lived Geneviève Jeanningros, the 81-year-old nun who broke protocol last Thursday, slipped into the front row to pray before Pope Francis' coffin and couldn't stop a few tears from escaping.

Currently, the amusement park is also home to about thirty other people, all fairground workers and humble individuals, who are so devoted to Francis that they named the small camp where they live after him. Francis, for his part, wanted to recognize the work of all these people by organizing a jubilee of fairground workers and circus professionals: acrobats, street performers, puppeteers, and others were scheduled to be at the Vatican on May 10 and 11. Now, it's unclear what will happen in between. They say there has never been another pope like Francis.

It all began in 2015. Sister Geneviève convinced Francesc to go to the Ostia fairgrounds and see firsthand the dignity with which all those humble people live. "We learned about the Pope's visit half an hour beforehand," recalls the fair's manager, Ginetto Pugliè, who admits they were stunned when they saw the pontiff enter the camp and walk among the caravans. The Pope greeted the fairground workers one by one and blessed one of the workers, who was heavily pregnant at the time. The child born is named Oscar and is now 9 years old. "I've been to see the Pope many times and sent him several letters," the boy says.

Sister Geneviève took it upon herself to take the boy repeatedly to the Vatican for the pontiff's blessing. "This wasn't a pope who came once and then forgot about us," says the boy's grandmother, Epiffania Bardelli, as she pulls out dozens of photographs from a room of the Pope's two visits to Luna Park and the countless times the Oscar was blessed. In one image, the boy is even dressed as his father. Literally. They bought him a pontiff costume.

But devotion to Francis went even further with the pandemic. If the fairgrounds already had few customers before, with the coronavirus, the amusement park was empty. Then, Sister Geneviève asked Francis for help again. "He sent us two vans full of food. There was so much that we had leftovers, and we distributed a good part of it to families in the town," explains the fair manager, who confesses that he didn't want to go see the Pope's coffin because he prefers to remember him alive.

"The day I turned 80, the Pope called me to congratulate me," says Oscar's grandmother. That was just over a year ago: January 6, 2024. "At first, I thought it was a joke, but when I realized it was really him, I started to cry," admits the woman, who proudly shows off a gift that Francis sent her through Sister Geneviève: a pink face with the Vatican coat of arms engraved on the other.

Second visit to the amusement park

On July 31, Francis returned to Luna Park. This time to bless a sculpture of Our Lady, protector of traveling shows and the circus, which the fairgrounds had placed on one side of the park. Naturally, the nun was the one who once again pulled the strings to organize the visit. At that time, the Pope was already in a wheelchair and his health had begun to deteriorate. Nevertheless, he went: the fairgrounds organized a reception for him in a small park with walls decorated with brightly colored drawings and a crowd of children. "I gave him a music box with little horses, and an envelope with five euros so he could buy an ice cream," says little Oscar. According to his grandmother, the ice cream idea delighted Francis.

Sister Geneviève no longer lives at Luna Park. The nun moved a few months ago. She shared a caravan with another nun, Sister Anna Amelia, also elderly, who recently had knee surgery. "They've given her prosthetics, and the park is no longer a place for her," laments Ginetto, the park manager. The ground is gravel. It's certainly not the best place for walking.

Without Sister Geneviève, and with the death of Pope Francis, the fairgoers feel orphaned. They hope the new pontiff will be a relatable person and, above all, that he won't forget them.