Robert St. John Schreier
Alexander Dawson School
Lafayette, Colorado

They then continued on in April 2006, to travel to Rome as tourists. On April 26, 2006 through the intricate workings of the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI granted them a private audience on the basis of the completion of my Eagle Scout project. One might say, why would the Pope care about such a project? Simply stated: this project represented one of the newest examples to him of a youth working in connection among Christians and Jews sharing a sacred worship space and working in "community" to better their spiritual surroundings. The Pope had heard about my project through the Bishops' Office for the United States Visitors to the Vatican. He further heard about my project because of the work undertaken by Cardinal Walter Kasper, Head of the Council for Unity Among Christians and Jews at the Vatican. Cardinal Kasper personally took my project to Pope Benedict who asked to see my parents when they were at the Vatican last year.

My parents had a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI, who commemorated my project. While I was not with my parents, it was a moving experience for them. Little did my family realize that when I commenced my community service project, taking the final step toward the attainment of Scouting's highest rank, Eagle Scout, Pope Benedict XVI would care. Indeed he does because one of his highest priorities is to seek further cooperation and normalization among relationships between Christians and Jews in our world. This has had a profound impact upon my life. Upon my return to America, I listened to my parents' stories of their private audience. Indeed, among the Lutheran Church in America and the Jewish Renewal Movement in America, senior Lutheran Bishops and senior Jewish Rabbis have now become aware of the "full circle" of my project. It is gratifying for me to see how the small spark which I began at my church culminated in universal recognition of the effort and work I undertook in God's service.