Pizza Makers Taste Papal Blessing

Sat., Oct. 28, 2000

Pizza chefs from the world over made a special delivery Wednesday to St. Peter’s Square, getting Pope John Paul II’s blessing for his Jubilee of the Pizza-Makers.

It was the latest in the church’s 2000 Holy Year days honoring a wide range of people and trades, from doctors to traveling circus workers.

Chefs concocted a pizza for the pontiff: the “Papizza” - “Papa” being Italian for “pope.”

Mozzarella, zucchini flowers and yellow peppers stood in for the yellow and white Vatican colors.

“Viva il Papa!” the pizza chefs yelled.

The 2,000 cooks - some from Italy, others from as far away as Japan - presented John Paul with a copper pizza-warmer.

Later, the chefs were giving away 50,000 slices in the piazzas of Rome.

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Pizza Makers Taste Papal Blessing

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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