Norfolk sheriff moved by viewing of Pope Benedict

Norfolk Sheriff Bob McCabe thought of his family's dining room as he watched Pope Benedict XVI greet the throng Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House.

When he was little, and attending Catholic school, McCabe's family hung a portrait of Pope Pius VI above their dining table.

"Wherever you sat in the dining room, his eyes followed you," McCabe said.

McCabe saw Benedict through about 9,000 people, and from about a football field away. But the Catholic boy in him got goosebumps, he said.

"People were crying," he said. "There was a lot of emotion."

McCabe, president of the Virginia Sheriff's Association, attended the ceremony at the invitation of the National Sheriff's Association. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said.

Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2287, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com