It is indeed coincidental, the 21-year-old photography student Joy Cremers acknowledges Tuesday from Vatican City. For a school project she left for the dwarf state on Sunday, a day later the pope died. “That was very special, the mood completely changed.”
Joy studies photography at SintLucas in Eindhoven. For a school project it seemed nice to take pictures of the sisters in Rome and in Vatican City. “I also did that for an earlier project with Sisters in Venlo. That yielded very interesting image at the time,” says Joy, who is not religious.
Sunday she landed in Rome. At the end of this week she leaves again and goes to a monastery north of Rome, where she spends the night at the local sisters for five days. “Quite special all. And it took a lot of arranging, because you don’t just come in here.”
“At one point he received an app from his daughter with the big news.”
But on Monday everything changed. Well, finally then. “At that time I was with an Italian who showed me some churches in the area. He actually immediately reacted very sober to the news that the pope had died. So from: well, now he is in heaven and there it is good. I thought that was separate.”
And so more people in Rome and Vatican City respond, says Joy. “But certainly not everyone. No, there are also people who use the news to pray for hours at the Vatican. Then they just sit there, hours in a row.”
According to Joy, the atmosphere has therefore completely changed compared to earlier. “That may not be surprising, but it was special to experience. When I was in Vatican City on Sunday, there were mainly many sisters in training. They chatted with each other and took photos. A day later everyone is silent. The only thing that the sisters are still doing is praying for a long time.” Crying people says she didn’t see them.
Joy mainly takes photos now, everywhere she can. After all, she is in Rome and Vatican City for her photography studies. “The death of course also produces beautiful images. There are flowers everywhere and everywhere there are sisters, fathers and monks here. And it only seems to be getting busier.”
Joy leaves for a monastery in a few nights. There she will spend the night among the sisters, something that took a lot of time to arrange. “Yes, that is suddenly even more exciting now. I am very curious what that will be like. How are they going to respond when I start about the Pope? Are they constantly working on it? I’m going to see it.”
