Cop who gave hat to Pope dies - PAPAL VISIT SPECIAL
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 21 July 2008: 9.
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It had been the policeman's dream to see the Pope on a never-realised visit to the Vatican in Rome. Instead, he met the Pope in person, but he was too sick to get up from his ambulance stretcher.
"Someone must have spoken to the Pope about ([Gary Hill]) wanting to give him a hat, and after the Pope blessed Gary, I saw him look at Gary's police hat and he must have thought, `This is the hat they wanted to give me'," Superintendent Bruce Lyons, a friend, said.
THE gravely ill NSW policeman who managed to give his police hat to the Pope during a personal audience passed away yesterday morning.
Senior Constable Gary Hill, 53, was near death from cancer last Wednesday when colleagues arranged for a meeting with the Pope before the official start of the World Youth Day celebrations.
It had been the policeman's dream to see the Pope on a never-realised visit to the Vatican in Rome. Instead, he met the Pope in person, but he was too sick to get up from his ambulance stretcher.
Although he and friends had taken Akubra hats as presents for the Pope, defying a security ban by hiding them under a blanket, it was the policeman's own hat that the pontiff donned.
Yesterday, colleagues remembered Constable Hill as a model policeman and a staunch Catholic.
At their meeting, the Pope blessed Constable Hill, gave him a set of rosary beads, stroked his arm and assured him God would take care of him.
"Someone must have spoken to the Pope about (Gary) wanting to give him a hat, and after the Pope blessed Gary, I saw him look at Gary's police hat and he must have thought, `This is the hat they wanted to give me'," Superintendent Bruce Lyons, a friend, said.
"Gary felt very honoured, even though he was on a stretcher. I am sure his faith gave him strength to battle on through his illness."
Constable Hill is survived by his wife, Julie.
A funeral with full police honours is expected to be held on the NSW north coast later this week.
Credit: John Stapleton
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