Yes, Bob Brady still has Pope Francis’ drinking glass from his 2015 visit
Bob Brady reminisced about Pope Francis — including the time the former U.S. representative took the pontiff's water.
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady said he got ragged on for keeping Pope Francis’ drinking glass and leftover water after the pontiff addressed Congress in 2015. But it turns out, Brady paid for the glass and had the pope’s permission to keep it.
In light of the pope’s death Monday, Brady, chairman of Philadelphia’s Democratic Party, spoke with The Inquirer to reflect on his memories of the pontiff — and to set the record straight on a decade-old story that gained national notoriety.
When Pope Francis set out on his six-day U.S. tour, visiting Philadelphia, New York, and D.C., his itinerary included an address to a joint session of Congress.
Brady, who was representing Pennsylvania’s First District in Congress at the time, famously (or infamously, depending on whom you ask) snagged the glass of water from the pope’s lectern, after Pope Francis had sipped from it at least three times during his speech. Brady brought the glass back to his office. He had pulled a similar stunt years earlier at Barack Obama’s first presidential inauguration in 2009.
The incident went viral. Brady garnered press attention for the glass swipe, even hosting a press conference to discuss his papal souvenir.
“But then I got beat up on, like, Colbert or whatever,” Brady recalled in a phone interview Monday.
The nearly five-minute vamp from Colbert featured the late-night host challenging Brady’s decision to take the glass. “Art thou serious?” Colbert joked, referring to the water as “papal backwash” at one point.
But according to Brady, he asked the sergeant of arms if he could keep the glass and paid the Department of Treasury $1.75 for it.
In fact, Brady, who is Roman Catholic, said he went through as many channels as possible to ensure that keeping the glass wasn’t sinful.
He asked a cardinal nearby in case the church might want it (who apparently told Brady to keep it because the church had access to other items used by the pope, including dishes and bedding). He even asked the pope himself.
“I saw him leaving when he was at the airport. I went up to him and his interpreter, though he spoke pretty decently, and said ‘I have your water glass. If it’s OK, can I keep it?’ He said, ‘Sure, absolutely. Give it to the kids, bless the kids,’” Brady recalled. “I got permission and I took it.”
Still, Brady wondered, what would happen when the water was gone?
Pope Francis and his interpreter reportedly told him that if he poured more water to combine with the existing bit, the new water “automatically will be blessed by the pope, too.” So that’s what he did, sharing it with his family and grandchildren.
From there, Brady says hundreds of people would ask to bless themselves, including former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) and his wife, Terese, who dipped their fingers in the water. When Brady met the pope again during the Philadelphia portion of his visit at St. Joseph’s University, Brady said Pope Francis again insisted that he share the holy water and bless the children.
“A lot of people came up to me there and told me ‘this guy is sick,’ ‘that person is sick,’ or ‘do you mind if I come over and bless myself?’” Brady said. “I had about 20 people come over to my house that day. ... If I helped somebody, that’s great.”
Brady still has the glass, which he had fingerprinted for authenticity, in his home curio cabinet.
“He was really, really cool,” Brady said of the pope. “[His death] is so sad. He grabbed my arm with both hands when he spoke to me. He was a good guy, a really nice man.”