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James Lu and Fiona Choi of Sydney, Australia, have been married for less than two months, but they have a story they can tell for the rest of their lives.
Like many married couples, Lu and Choi went to Rome for the Sposi Novelli blessing — a special blessing from the pope for newlywed couples at one of the Wednesday audiences.
While there is no guarantee that any of the couples present will get to meet the pope during their audience, Lu and Choi were prepared if the opportunity presented itself.
They brought a special gift with them from Australia: an Akubra Coober Pedy hat.
"Fiona and I had seen that a U.S. newlywed couple had given him a White Sox cap, and he's taken hats from the faithful in St. Peter's Square when he drives around to greet them before Audiences," he told Aleteia. "So we thought we'd get him an iconic Australian hat."
The Akubra Coober Pedy is made out of fur felt, with a kangaroo leather band, and has an opal embedded on the side, Lu explained.
Technology help
There was, however, the issue of sizing. For that, Lu told Aleteia he put "hundreds of photos" of Pope Leo into ChatGPT to try to best guess his hat size.
While ChatGPT guessed approximately 56 to 57 centimeters, the hat Lu brought was a little small.
"I'm confident he's a 58," he said.
When August 14, the day of the audience arrived, Lu and Choi had no idea whether or not they would get the chance to say hi to Pope Leo. Both were decked out in their wedding clothes and excited to be in Rome and at a papal audience, regardless of what happened.
"The time the newlyweds get with (the Pope) is dependent on his schedule for the day and various other factors," said Lu.
In fact, by the time Pope Leo came to see the newlyweds, the Holy Father quipped, "I've been given my marching orders," said Lu, meaning he had to speed things up.
Lu and Choi presented Pope Leo with their gifts, and Pope Leo tried on the hat. Photos of the encounter quickly went viral on the Catholic part of the internet.
"The reaction in the Hall was just phenomenal. The crowd went wild, the energy amongst the other newlyweds was electric," said Lu.
Pope Leo was "very gentle and kind [and] took great interest in what you had to say. In some of the photos of us, you can see him showing great interest in what we had in our bag of goodies," he said.
"We loved our encounter with him," said Lu.
They also told Pope Leo to come by if he visited Australia.
"We invited him to our local parish in Sydney," said Lu. "As he may be coming for the International Eucharistic Congress in 2028."
